Iran's troubles, Obama's choices

All is not well in the house of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Despite his protests, Iran's parliament on Tuesday impeached and dismissed his interior minister, the man whose job it is to run Iran's notoriously rigged elections — with an election coming up next June. The parliamentary revolt is just one sign of a deteriorating economic and political environment that has cast doubt on the highly controversial Mr. Ahmadinejad's prospects for re-election.

This situation suggests that President-elect Barack Obama should wait at least until after the Iranian election before carrying out a campaign promise to talk to Iran's leader. His desire to change the basis of U.S.-Iranian relations will go much more smoothly if he does not have to sit down with the Israel-hating, U.S.-baiting demagogue incumbent.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has been quietly doing the groundwork for a new U.S.-Iranian relationship — and easing Mr. Obama's path — by negotiating the terms for re-opening a U.S. diplomatic mission in Tehran. A proposed new consular office would be the first U.S. presence in Iran since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy by Iranian radicals.

This quiet diplomacy only makes sense if there has been a signal from the real powers-that-be in Iran that there is something substantive to discuss between the two governments. While Mr. Ahmadinejad has been the public face of Iran since 2005, real power, especially over foreign policy, is exercised by unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his senior advisers.

Parliamentary dissatisfaction with the president's big-spending, inflationary economic policies has led to the dismissal of 10 cabinet ministers, the last through the impeachment of Interior Minister Ali Kordan. By law Mr. Ahmadinejad now must submit his entire cabinet to a confidence vote by parliament.

Mr. Ahmadinejad opponents seized the opportunity to outmaneuver him when Oxford University declared that the honorary doctorate in law degree claimed by Mr. Kordan was a fake. An aide to the president overplayed his hand by handing out $5,000 checks to lawmakers in exchange for a promise to block his impeachment, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The two key issues between Washington and Tehran are stability in Iraq and Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology. Reportedly there is still room for an agreement under which Iran would verifiably renounce nuclear weapons, opening the door to better, less hostile relations with the world. That's not likely to happen while Mr. Ahmadinejad is still in office. Better for Mr. Obama to wait until his future is decided.