US:Barack Obama has promised to launch an aggressive, personal diplomatic effort to engage Iran if he becomes president, holding out the prospect of a guarantee that the United States will not seek regime change in Tehran.
Mr Obama outlined his policy in an interview with the New York Times yesterday as Iran appeared to be replacing Iraq as the foreign policy faultline among Democratic presidential candidates.
Mr Obama criticised Iran for "acting irresponsibly" by supporting Shia militant groups in Iraq and described Iran's suspected nuclear weapons programme and its support for "terrorist activities" as serious concerns. He suggested, however, that Tehran's support for militant groups in Iraq reflected its anxiety over the US policies in the region, including the possibility of a US attack on Iranian nuclear installations.
"We're not looking at Iraq, just in isolation. Iran and Syria would start changing their behaviour if they started seeing that they had some incentives to do so, but right now the only incentive that exists is our president suggesting that if you do what we tell you, we may not blow you up," Mr Obama said.
"We are willing to talk about certain assurances in the context of them showing some good faith. I think it is important for us to send a signal that we are not hell bent on regime change, just for the sake of regime change, but expect changes in behaviour and there are both carrots and there are sticks available to them for those changes in behaviour.
"Where those conversations go is not yet clear, but what is absolutely clear is that the path that we are on now is not going to make our troops in Iraq safer."
Mr Obama has criticised Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton for supporting a Senate resolution that described Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity. Mr Obama, who did not turn up to vote on the resolution, fears that US president George Bush could use it as a pretext to attack Iran.
This week, Mrs Clinton joined 29 other senators in telling Mr Bush that he has no congressional authority for war with Iran.
In a letter to the president, 29 Democrats and one independent senator called for the resolution of disputes with Tehran through diplomacy alone.
"We wish to emphasise that no congressional authority exists for unilateral military action against Iran," they said.
Mr Bush's hopes of winning Senate confirmation for Michael Mukasey, his nominee for attorney general, dimmed further yesterday when a key Democratic senator said he would vote no.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy said he could not support Mr Mukasey because the former federal judge has refused to say if he believes that waterboarding is illegal.
"I wish that I could support his nomination. But I cannot. America needs to be certain and confident of the bedrock principle - deeply embedded in our laws and our values - that no one, not even the president, is above the law," Mr Leahy said.
Four other Democrats on the committee have already said they will vote against Mr Mukasey, who told senators this week that, although he finds waterboarding personally repugnant, he could not say if it is against the law because he has not received classified briefings on the practice.
"No American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture," Mr Leahy said yesterday.
Mr Bush has threatened to leave the justice department leaderless if the Senate rejects Mr Mukasey.
"He's a good man. He's a fair man. He's an independent man, and he's plenty qualified to be attorney general," the president said.