Excerpt:
This week Iran released on bail the remainder of the British embassy employees it had detained following the disputed June 12 presidential election.
It is tempting to dismiss the latest arrests and releases--along with the similar episodes that have occurred over the last couple of years involving everyone from U.S. journalists to British Navy sailors--as irrational acts of a regime that doesn't know what it is doing.
The reality is that these provocative acts are very rational and serve Iran's interests. They're classic "dictaplomacy."