A quick follow-up to my last post to note that the U.S. appears to be inching toward a new engagement with Iran. According to this New York Times report (U.S. Envoy to Join Meeting With Iranian):

President Bush has authorized the most significant American diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, sending the State Department's third-ranking official to Geneva for a meeting this weekend on Iran's nuclear program, administration officials said Tuesday. The decision appeared to bend, if not exactly break, the administration's insistence that it would not negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programs unless it first suspended uranium enrichment, as demanded by three resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

Let's hope the Iranian leadership will see this as a sign of a thaw and will reciprocate the gesture.