Editing Nicholas Kristof (section)

==="Grand bargain" with Iran===
Kristof published several articles criticizing the missed opportunity of the "grand bargain", a proposal by [[Iran]] to normalize relations with the United States, implement procedures to assure the US it will not develop nuclear weapons, deny any monetary support to Palestinian resistance groups until they agree to stop targeting civilians, support the [[Arab Peace Initiative]], and ensure full transparency to assuage any US concerns. In return, the Iranians demanded abolition of sanctions and a US statement that Iran does not belong in the so-called "Axis of Evil". In his columns, Kristof revealed the documents detailing the "grand bargain" proposal and argued that it was killed by hardliners in the Bush administration.

According to Kristof, that was an "appalling mistake"<ref name=iran2>{{cite news |first=Nicholas D. |last=Kristof |title=Diplomacy at Its Worst |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29kristof.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 29, 2007 |access-date=March 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530064632/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29kristof.html |archive-date=May 30, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> since "the Iranian proposal was promising and certainly should have been followed up. It seems diplomatic mismanagement of the highest order for the Bush administration to have rejected that process out of hand, and now to be instead beating the drums of war and considering air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites."<ref name=iran>{{cite news |first=Nicholas D. |last=Kristof |title=Iran's Proposal for a 'Grand Bargain' |url=http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/irans-proposal-for-a-grand-bargain/ |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 28, 2007 |access-date=July 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725115143/http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/04/28/irans-proposal-for-a-grand-bargain/ |archive-date=July 25, 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kristof further believes that even if the grand bargain is not currently feasible, there is still an option for what he calls a "mini-bargain", a more modest proposal for normalizing American-Iranian relations.<ref name=iran/>