British scholar says Obama may opt for Iran dialogue

By IRNA,

Islamabad : A British policy analyst and expert on war on terrorism Saturday said that Obama’s administration may opt for dialogue with Iran.


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“The Obama administration might bring certain changes in some areas, for example dialogue with Iran,” Dr Anatol Lieven, an eminent writer and Professor at the Department of War Studies, Kings College, London University said here.

“Much however depends on how his foreign policy establishment understands and perceives the numerous foreign policy issues,” he said at a public talk on Obama’s administration and the “War on Terror” at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad.

He said Obama will try to step up efforts to inflict defeat on Taliban in Afghanistan but he ruled out revolution changes in the new U.S set up.

“There will be a concerted effort to defeat the Taliban and there may be short term successes in Afghanistan but inevitably the surge will fail,” he said,

He also reiterated the American stance and a word of caution for Pakistan that it must take effective measures to counter terrorists in the tribal belt, or else in the case of another terrorist attack on the America, it would not hesitate to take unilateral action in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Dr Anatol Lieven, stated that the Obama administration will not bring about a revolutionary change as most people would like to believe.

“His policies would reflect continuity of the previous administration’s policies and the key appointments made by the Obama administration are a manifestation of this continuity”.

Professor Lieven went on to identify certain issues and obstacles that come in the way of America at large, especially the global economic recession which has hit the United States economy very hard.

He also predicted that America will tacitly back off from NATO expansion and there will not be any radical change in the American stance towards Israel.

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