Trade-off on Afghanistan (HONG KONG)

With the likelihood of the United States engaging Iran in the near future and with Washington "resetting the button" in relations with Moscow, the air is thick with rumors of trade-offs. This is almost inevitable, given the interlocking cross-currents swirling around the three-way US-Iran-Russia equations.

Iranians have a penchant for trade-offs and Soviet-American detente historically relied on trade-offs. Thus, a season for trade-offs could indeed be commencing. But we may never quite know. That is because trade-offs often carry a stigma of opportunism and are deniable even when they are manifestly based on legitimate balancing of interests.

In recent weeks, Tehran has been watching with uneasiness the President Barack Obama administration's game plan to isolate Iran by tempting Russia (and Syria) into a trade-off. But it seems there is no such trade-off on the Russian front. The official Russian stance is that there has been no such American offer of a trade-off.

FULL ARTICLE