LOCAL NEWS:

Middle East Author Stephen Kinzer To Discuss White House Agenda and the Future of U.S.–Iran Relations

Kinzer served as a New York Times foreign correspondent and bureau chief for 20 years, covering more than 50 countries on five continents. He has written several books on U.S. policy in the Middle East and Latin America. The Washington Post has called him "among the best in popular foreign policy storytelling." His 2003 book about the legacy of the U.S.-sponsored coup against Iran's democratic government in 1953, All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, was just reissued by Wiley & Sons with a new foreword: "The Folly of Attacking Iran."

"Historically, when America engages in regime change, it's often for the wrong reasons or under false pretenses," said Kinzer. "In most cases, these operations end up having terrible results, not only for the target country but also for the United States itself. An attack on Iran now would seriously damage America's position in the Middle East and would create intense anti-American feeling in the only Muslim country in the region whose people are now pro-American."

With the February 22 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report prompting a UN vote on further sanctions against Iran, Kinzer said: "The more concerned the outside world is about Iran's behavior—whether about Iran's nuclear program, its support for militant groups in the Middle East, its repression of civil society or other issues—the more urgent the case for negotiation becomes. Direct, comprehensive and unconditional negotiations could produce results that would not only reassure Iran's neighbors and help stabilize the Middle East, but also contribute decisively to strengthening American national security. These countries are not only not fated to be enemies forever; they actually have many long-range security interests in common."