Foreign Policy Getting Stupid

Not totally surprised. We've lost all of our political bargainingship. No one is afraid of us. Bush is still spouting about us not talking to Iran unless they suspend nuclear efforts. It's such a hollow mantra because we have no means of successfully backing it up. Now, Iran has their own mantra. They will talk when we decide to leave.

Iran will only hold direct talks with the United States on Iraq if Washington announces plans to pull its troops out, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.

Mottaki was responding to this week's U.S. Iraq Study Group report, which recommended Washington should directly engage with Iran and Syria to try to stabilise Iraq.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said he will not talk to Iran unless it suspends its nuclear programme.

On the question of direct talks, "the first and most essential step ... is the United States announce they have decided to withdraw from Iraq", Mottaki told reporters at a security conference in Bahrain.

"Iran is ready to help the administration to withdraw its troops from Iraq," he said, but his country did not "see such political will yet in the United States".

Washington has said it will keeps its troops in Iraq as long as the Iraqi government wants.

We have a Kindergarten president inspiring Kindergarten diplomacy.