The skullduggery of the Revolutionary guard in Iran

David Ignatius:

We are in a season of skullduggery in the Middle East, with a strange series of events that all involve the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The murky saga is a reminder that the real power in Iran may lie with this secretive organization, which spawned Iran's firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Revolutionary Guards orchestrated the seizure of 15 British sailors and marines last week in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran. The British say they have technical data to prove their people were outside Iran's territorial waters when they were captured, and they have protested vigorously to Iranian diplomats. But the Iranian foreign ministry doesn't seem to know anything about the case. Indeed, it may have been one of the indirect targets.

The Revolutionary Guards seized the hostages, if that's the right word, at a time when they are under intense and growing pressure. U.S. troops captured five of their intelligence operatives last January in the Iraqi city of Irbil. Perhaps the Revolutionary Guards commanders wanted some bargaining chips to get their people back.

There are larger forces at play, too. The Revolutionary Guards were targeted in the new U.N. sanctions enacted last weekend against Iran's nuclear program -- which, as it happens, is run by the Revolutionary Guards. The elite military group may have wanted to retaliate by imposing its own brute sanctions against Britain, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

European officials note that the provocative move comes at a time of growing speculation about new discussions between the United States and Iran -- a dialogue the Revolutionary Guards may oppose. The two nations met in Baghdad this month as part of a regional conference on Iraqi security, and it was expected that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would meet her Iranian counterpart at a follow-up meeting in Istanbul in April. That meeting may be in jeopardy if the British sailors aren't returned soon.

The Revolutionary Guards may also have hoped to sabotage diplomatic negotiations over the nuclear issue. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said several weeks ago that the United States was getting "pinged all over the world'' by Iranian intermediaries who wanted a resumption of negotiations. Iran's chief negotiator, Ali Larijani, hinted that message in his recent contacts with the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana. But the prospect of nuclear talks may have been blown out of the water, as it were, until the British issue is resolved.

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I think the Guard doesn't need to scuttle anything because it does what the regime wants. There are no "moderates" in government in Iran. There is no one in government in Iran with any authority who wants to do a deal with anyone in the west. They all want to destroy us and our objectives int eh region. Ignatius is falling for their good cop bad cop game they have been playing for almost 30 years. They are like Lucy with the football, always ready to pull it away at the last moment. In is a regime whose foreign policy is based on bad faith and whose recent actions with the kidnapping only add more proof tot he bad faith in which they deal.

Diplomats and commentators like Ignatius like to believe that there is something to be gained by talking with people of bad faith, but there is precious little that they can point to in discussions with this bunch.