PRAGUE, October 25, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- U.S. energy-security expert Flynt Leverett is an experienced voice on Middle East affairs, having formerly served as a U.S. National Security Council adviser on that region. Leverett, who is now director of the New America Foundation's Geopolitics and Energy Security Project, spoke on October 24 with Radio Farda about U.S. efforts to discourage Iran's nuclear ambitions. Leverett said on the sidelines of the Prague Energy Forum -- organized by RFE/RL in partnership with the Warsaw-based Institute for Eastern Studies -- that he thinks Washington's current approach has not "been fruitful."

RFE/RL: Iran says it is in favor of negotiations, but [that] there should be no preconditions. Do you feel that this would be acceptable to the United States under any circumstances?

Flynt Leverett: At this moment, U.S. policy is that the Iranians should suspend all of their enrichment-related activities as a precondition for negotiations. Apparently, in the last few weeks, Mr. [Javier] Solana of the European Union has been trying to work out a formula whereby perhaps the Iranians would agree to a suspension for a certain period of time, but maybe the day after talks started, so it wouldn't formally be a precondition. But those efforts proved unsuccessful. I think it will be very difficult for the Bush administration to enter talks with Iran without some kind of prior understanding about suspension [regarding] what kinds of activities Iran would be allowed to carry out or not carry out while negotiations were moving forward. I think the administration attaches a high priority to that, and it would be a difficult hurdle to get over in order to get the United States into some kind of negotiating process...

For the complete interview, please visit the Radio Free Europe website.