Your Daily Update: What Exactly is Dennis Ross in Charge Of?

In today's episode, we try to find Dennis' new office in the State Department, courtesy of The Cable blog at Foreign Policy and ask if he is the now the Super-Envoy for Bahrain. Or Turkmenistan. Or maybe Sylvania.

The State Department, bless them, is trying to reassure folks off-the-record that Ross --- despite the public efforts not to mention the I-word in the description of his duties --- has been really important in the review of Iran policy. He has been in discussions with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Undersecretary of State William Burns, who has been Washington's point man in talks about and with the Iranians, and the Department's staff.

So far, so good. But then "sources" start bringing out other names. There's Puneet Talwar, the senior director on Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf for the National Security Council. Gary Samore, the NSC's nonproliferation coordinator, and Robert Einhorn, the likely Undersecretary of State for nonproliferation, are also in the mix. And maybe Vali Nasr, who is a specialist on Shiism and Iran but wound up as an advisor to Richard Holbrooke on Afghanistan and Pakistan, comes into play.

Let's not say too many cooks (or, heaven help, too many chiefs and not enough Indians), but the Ross episode --- while giving us lots of political chuckles --- indicates that President Obama's clear statement of "engagement" is in tension with a lack of coordination and clarity inside the Administration.

No great harm in that...yet. There's no real breakthrough possible until after June's Presidential election in Iran. The risk, however, is that the muddle at the State Department and beyond leaves the field open for the sniping critics who would like nothing better than fist-shaking at the "mullahs".

Update: Secret US-Iran Talks This Week?

Last Saturday, we broke the story of possible US-Iran secret talks this week, in connection with the American meeting in Berlin today with Russia, China, and the EU-3 (Britain, France, and Germany).

Over the last few days, news outlets have been catching up with the revelations that US and Iranian representatives, some of whom are now in the Obama and Ahmadinejad Administrations, were involved in non-governmental meetings in 2008. The most significant new name to emerge was Gary Samore, who will soon become President Obama's advisor on non-proliferation.

The question remains, however: will "engagement", especially with the prospect that the US needs Iranian assistance for the "surge" in Afghanistan, lead to a meeting in early 2009? The latest teaser is in an article in The Asia Times:

Eyes...now turn...toward Germany where the 45th Munich Conference on Security Policy is scheduled to take place next weekend. Organizers of the annual event revealed on Thursday that among the 300 prominent figures from the international arena of foreign, security and defense policy will be a "very high-ranking personality" from Tehran.

Other VIPs include US Vice President Joseph Biden, who is expected to make a major foreign and security policy speech.

The question is not whether Biden meets an Iranian official --- that is too high-profile to be a possibility. Instead, will any of the American officials who are in Berlin make the short hop to Munich for a bit of private time with any Iranians who happen to be there?