Diplomacy or force and the wisdom of Shirin Ebadi

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Iranian human rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, urges direct diplomatic talks to end the stalemate between Iran and the America and the West.

Follow the path of negotiation and peace - An interview with Shirin Ebadi

If I had to choose between Shirin Ebadi or the Bush Administration, the U.N. Security Council, and Western observers for whom would know better the direction of peace, denuclearization, and democracy in Iran, Shirin has the inside track, I think. She does the dirty work that all of those others would not dare to do - pursuing those goals while living within the repressive conditions of Iran. She also has the benefit of being both committed to peace and human rights and being an Iranian citizen aware of the interests and perspectives of her home country and the limitations and pace of more genuine change in her homeland.

What Americans and the West have long misunderstood is that all of the provocative gestures with Iran have not only shored up too much support for a weak leader, but produced dissent among even reform-minded Iranians concerned both with Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear program, it's right to self-defense - independent of American or Western aims - and much more wary of the motives of Washington than suspicions Washington harbors for itself.

That's the problem with an obsession with power. Everyone has good reason to be mistrustful of your designs as long as you pursue it. Because it is a sign that you are more interested in winning your position rather than winning their trust.

And trust is what all parties in this drama, and all parties in most political dramas, must earn if genuine resolution of competing aims is to take place. There is no win that finally resolves our most serious concerns. There is either resolution, or there is not.

And, generally, I trust someone like Shirin Ebadi who clearly is more interested in such resolution than any of the players, especially the Bush Administration, hoping to bluster their way to an endgame. The movement towards diplomatic resolution on the part of Secretary of State Rice is a hopeful one, in this direction. Let's hope that such movement translates into better results than the current policy has produced.