(IPS) analysis

Eager to take advantage of sympathetic signals from Tehran in the wake of last month's terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the administration of US President George W Bush is signalling back.

The State Department has stepped up a formal review of Iran policy under the direction of its director for policy planning, Richard Haass, who also has been named US liaison with the United Nations and countries involved in negotiating a post-Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The choice of Haass to play both roles is significant. He served as chief White House Middle East adviser for Bush's father during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis.

Before his appointment by Secretary of State Colin Powell, he also was a prominent critic of US sanctions against Tehran and the Clinton administration's policy of ''dual containment'' - in which Iran was treated like a ''rogue state'' along with Iraq.

The most concrete sign of a new approach to Iran was announced Monday, when government lawyers asked a federal court to vacate a multi-billion-dollar judgment against Iran in a lawsuit filed last year by the 52 US citizens who were held hostage at the Washington's embassy in Tehran after the 1978 Islamic Revolution.

Military operations

While the State Department insisted publicly that they were contesting the judgment only because they had just heard about it, analysts said the move was designed to show Tehran that Washington intends to improve the relationship.

''The idea that the State Department only just found out that its own foreign-service officers had won a judgment against a sovereign government is frankly ridiculous,'' said one Congressional aide whose boss supported the recent five-year extension of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which gives the president authority to punish foreign companies that invest in Iran's oil industry.

The State Department's move followed receipt of a diplomatic message sent by Tehran through the Swiss foreign ministry last week reportedly assuring Washington that Iran will aid any US soldier or pilot who might be shot down or forced to land in Iranian territory during military operations against Afghanistan.

Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran after the embassy's seizure and relies on Swiss diplomats for official communications.

Given Iran's proximity - it shares an 800km border with Afghanistan - and its hostility to the Taliban government, Tehran has a strong interest in US operations and intentions there.

Virtually frozen

Iran hosts some two million Afghan refugees, one of the largest refugee populations in the world, and is eager to have them return home. Defeat of the Taliban and massive international aid would hasten that prospect.

In addition, the Taliban's militant brand of Sunni Islam has always disturbed Iran, whose population is overwhelmingly Shia. Moreover, Tehran has frequently protested the Taliban's harsh treatment of its Hazara co-religionists, who make up about 20 percent of Afghanistan's population.

Iran almost went to war against Afghanistan in 1998 after Taliban forces killed Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif.

However, US-Iranian relations have been virtually frozen in hostility for almost a quarter century, and there are powerful constituencies in both countries that oppose any rapprochement.

In the United States, the powerful Zionist lobby showed its muscle as recently as last summer, when Congress extended ILSA for five years over the objections of the Bush administration, which lobbied for a two-year extension.

Last April, Washington described Tehran, which has supported Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. In June, Attorney General John Ashcroft accused it of being behind the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 US soldiers.

Nuclear-related equipment

Washington also has charged that Tehran is building nuclear weapons and has threatened to sanction Russia for selling it nuclear-related equipment.

On the Iranian side, reformers associated with highly popular President Mohammed Khatami have at times voiced interest in renewing ties with Washington but they have been constrained by the still-powerful conservative forces behind the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

Nonetheless, Tehran reacted with sympathy to the Sept 11 attacks. Some 50,000 people attending a soccer match in Tehran shortly after the attacks observed a moment of silence in honour of the victims, and the mayor of Tehran sent written condolences to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the first public official contact between the two countries since 1979.

Since then, Iran has offered public qualified backing for Bush's ''war'' against terrorism. Among other concerns, it has urged Washington to seek the UN Security Council's sanction for military operations - something that Bush has so far declined to do. It has also expressed concern that hostilities could further destabilise the region, including Central Asia, and spur a new influx of refugees into Iran.

Worth exploring

Privately, however, Tehran reportedly has been forthcoming. The first visit in more than 20 years of the British foreign minister to Tehran was considered a significant sign, particularly given Prime Minister Tony Blair's role since Sept 11 as Washington's ambassador to the Islamic world.

''They may want to make (common) cause against the Taliban,'' Powell noted at the time. ''It seems to me that is an opening worth exploring.''

This appears to be what is now happening.

In a published interview this week, the secretary of the powerful, conservative-dominated Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, stated very clearly what Tehran expects from Washington out of the present crisis: In particular, the end of its containment policy and recognition of Iran's security role in the region.

''Iran can have an effective role in establishing security in this region, not in the role of a US gendarme but as a representative of the international community,'' he said. ''We think that finally the US will reach this conclusion.''

This extends not only to the Gulf, where relations between Tehran and the Gulf states have improved dramatically over the last several years, but also to Central Asia. As part of its containment policy, Washington has tried to prevent oil and gas resources there from being shipped through Iran, despite the fact that it is the quickest and most convenient route to market.

Tehran, which has supported the Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, also wants a seat at the negotiating table on the creation of a post-Taliban government in Kabul, a desire that places it squarely within the scope of Haass' new responsibilities.

At a conference last year, Haass said that Iran's participation in multilateral efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan should be used by Washington to pursue bilateral issues, informally if necessary.

''If (Afghanistan) becomes a back door to begin to discuss some issues, I for one would welcome it,'' Haass said.