WASHINGTON -- With a series of quiet approaches and inducements, the White House has tried to achieve a politically risky opening to Iran before President Clinton leaves office, say administration officials. But all of its efforts have been rebuffed.
The most dramatic of these initiatives, they said, was a secret message sent in August seeking the cooperation of Iran's reformist president, Mohammed Khatami, in solving the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudia Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. servicemen and wounded hundreds.In November, the administration also sought talks on reopening consular offices in Tehran for the first time since relations were cut after the 1979 Islamic revolution. And it appears ready to ignore sanctions against foreign oil companies that have signed multimillion-dollar contracts to do business in Iran.
While none of these efforts has borne fruit, Khatami's seemingly more open attitude toward the West has convinced the White House that Clinton has a political opening, if a narrow one, to turn the tide on 20 years of acrimony and failed relations with Iran.
Less clear, however, is whether Iran's reformers, who appear increasingly on the defensive, have that same room to maneuver.
Although it would like to re-establish some relations with Iran, the administration remains highly concerned about Iranian support of terrorism and that Tehran may seek to undermine Middle East peace talks as they near a critical, final phase.
The concern over terrorism is in part why the Khobar Towers bombing has provided the most immediate obstacle to resuming ties. And the attempt to gain Iranian cooperation in the case was the White House's most significant effort yet to try and tease out the moderates in Tehran and test their willingness and ability to engage the United States.
Early this year, or late last, say U.S. intelligence officials, they obtained the most convincing information yet that Iranian officials may have been behind the attack.
These officials refused to describe that information except to say that it was not the kind that would stand up in court. But it was used, say administration officials, to try and exploit a deepening power struggle within Iran's government and see if Khatami was ready, or able, to split from the hardliners and disavow his country's long support of terrorism.
A message from Clinton to Khatami was secretly drafted, requesting his cooperation in the Khobar case and asking him to try and stop other terrorist-related activities. That message sat unsent in the White House for months until August, when it was finally delivered by Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk and National Security Council aide Bruce Reidel at a meeting in Paris with the Sultan of Oman, who passed it on.
While the message had been addressed personally to Khatami, the response came back from the government of Iran: It wasn't interested.