Bolling: Iran Talks Can Help

Well, did you think Iran was just going to shut down its nuclear program?

I have been closely watching the Undersecretary of State William Burns and the results of his historic meeting yesterday in Geneva with the Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator.

Don't get me wrong. It is definitely a step in the right direction to send a U.S. diplomat to the bargaining table with Iran. The purpose was to negotiate with the Iranians regarding their uranium enrichment program.

I think the meeting was largely symbolic, however. The U.S. sent Burns, Condoleeza Rice's undersecretary, to the meeting for a single day. And he was sent with demands that Iran has already rejected from much more influential diplomats.

However, I am very happy we sent him. I think the message Burns carried to Geneva was actually a message being sent to a place near Iran, but not on the Persian Gulf. I believe it was a message sent to Tehran, but meant for Jerusalem.

By breaking a decades-old diplomatic embargo with Iran, we showed the world, especially Israel, that we hope to resolve this issue with words and negotiation rather than long-range ballistics.

Don't get me wrong. If there were a conflict (or war) between Israel and Iran, we would and should assist our most trusted Middle East ally Israel. We have no reason to help Iran, a state we believe to be supporting terrorist activity with the revenue it receives from an inflated oil price. Because we use 25% of the world's oil, and the oil market cares little about who actually buys from whom, the origins of that high price can be traced directly to us.