OBAMA EXTENDS OLIVE BRANCH TO IRAN

Barack Obama's administration yesterday reached out to Iran by inviting it to an international conference on Afghanistan. In a break with US policy under former President George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, told a Nato meeting in Brussels that Iran was likely to be invited to the conference, pencilled in for later this month. US officials later confirmed that Iran would be invited.

The move would reinstate a US-Iranian link that ended after Mr Bush denounced the Islamic republic in 2002 as part of an “axis of evil”.

“If you are going to have a regional conference with Afghanistan you have to include the country that it is on their western border,” said one administration official. “Whether or not Iran is prepared to play a positive role is another question.”

The decision, one of the Obama administration's most high profile foreign policy moves to date, comes after Mrs Clinton announced earlier this week that the US was sending two top officials to Syria in another attempt to overcome past tensions.