Bush's Iranian finesse

IN HIS State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Bush was tantalizingly vague on a subject that is sure to rise to the top of his foreign policy agenda -- the threats and opportunities emanating from the Islamic Republic of Iran. That vagueness may reflect a shrewd effort to avoid showing the administration's hand on Iran before it is forced to do so. Still, there are dangers in Bush's ambiguity.

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His rhetoric was markedly less inflammatory than it was four years ago, when he included Tehran's religious dictatorship with Saddam Hussein's regime and North Korea in an ''axis of evil" that would not be tolerated. Yet today Iran's rulers are resisting the entreaties of negotiators from France, Germany, and Great Britain who have been offering incentives to persuade Iran to abjure development of nuclear weapons. . For that reason, Iran casts a more threatening shadow than it did in 2001, when Bush consigned Iran to his confused and confusing axis of evil.

Nonetheless, Bush's rhetorical restraint suits the needs of the moment. Notwithstanding dark hints from Vice President Dick Cheney about surgical strikes, perhaps by Israel, against nuclear sites in Iran, there are no sound military options for eliminating Tehran's nuclear weapons program. So Bush was smart to say, ''We are working with European allies to make clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment program and any plutonium reprocessing."

There is a fundamental flaw, however, in the administration's passive acceptance of the Europeans' negotiations with Iran. The Europeans as well as the Iranians have been arguing that, if a deal is to be struck, it must include Washington. Only the Americans can deliver the security assurances Tehran wants, the lifting of economic sanctions, and accession to the World Trade Organization.

So Bush will have to decide, sooner rather than later, whether to engage with a regime that is rooted in hostility to America and has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. If he opts for engagement -- for cutting a deal that rewards the mullahs for ending their nuclear weapons program -- he may eliminate a grave threat to regional stability and world peace. Such an achievement would be worthwhile, but would have its price.

Wednesday night, Bush addressed the Iranian people directly, saying, ''As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." These words will become an empty promise if Bush chooses to approve a transaction that strengthens the position of the regime in return for its verifiable commitment to foreswear nuclear weapons. Bush should not be making promises he is unlikely to keep.