CONFLICTING SIGNALS

Does Iran actually have a coherent foreign policy that can be interpreted by the outside world? Even posing the question alone goes some way to pointing towards a negative answer. On the one hand, Western hostages in Lebanon, held by Iranian- backed groups, have been liberated at an astonishingly accelerated rate over the past few months. On the other hand, the Iranian government chose to mount a "counter conference" to the Madrid peace negotiations underlining its support for the rejectionist camp, while Hizbollah is widely suspected of perpetrating a bomb attack on the American University of Beirut (AUB) early in November.