When United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused of “subversive activity” in on Tuesday, it raised the question of whether he is trying to discourage President Barack Obama from abandoning the hardline policy of coercive diplomacy toward Iran he has favored for nearly three decades. In making a new accusation against Iran, just as Obama is still considering his diplomatic options, Gates appears to be reprising his role in undermining a plan by president George H W Bush in early 1992 to announce goodwill gestures to Iran as reciprocity for Iranian help in freeing US hostages from Lebanon. Bush ultimately abandoned the plan, which had been three years
