By IRNA,
Berlin : The West has to finally pursue a policy of detente vis-a-vis Iran which should include an end to western sanctions over nuclear program and direct talks between both sides, said a leading German Middle East scholar on Sunday.
The former head of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Christoph Bertram wrote in an op-ed piece for the Sunday daily Der Tagesspiegel that the present western Iran strategy had “failed.”
He urged western leaders to “review the strategy towards Iran” instead of issuing futile threats and repeatedly passing “toothless sanctions.”
Bertram who is to unveil Monday evening his new book on Iran titled ‘Partner, not rival: For another Iran policy’, stressed any basis for a western rethinking had take into account that the West had not been able to stop Iran’s nuclear program over the past six years.
The ex-director of London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies called on western nations to engage in nuclear talks with Tehran” without any preconditions.”
Bertram made clear that a western detente policy with Iran had to include Tehran’s right to enrich uranium for its civilian nuclear program and “fair solutions” for all remaining non-nuclear problems.
Such a western Iran initiative has to be led by the US, the scholar added.
He emphasized that Iran’s key role in securing a lasting comprehensive Mideast peace could be the “basis for a strategic partnership” with the West.
Bertram is among several prominent Iran experts in Germany who have expressed deep scepticism over Berlin’s current policy towards Tehran.