US policy towards Iran may be shifting to a less confrontational approach as the Bush administration is driven by the crisis in Iraq to consider more engagement with Tehran’s clerical regime, according to analysts and former officials. But diplomats cautioned that hardliners in the Bush administration were resisting “realists” advocating a more pragmatic approach. Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, said there was a “condominium” of thought that Iran was “not intent on stirring things up in the south”, around the holy Shia cities of Najaf and Karbala, and risk increasing the US military presence there. “They have been, I think, relatively helpful,” Mr Armitage, regarded as a “realist” in the administration, told the Financial Times.Full Story