EDITORIAL: Iran challenged to put up or shut up: OUR OPINION: POLICY CHANGE OFFERS A WAY TO AVERT CONFRONTATION.

Jun. 2--How's this for going the last mile to show that the United States is serious about finding a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear standoff: Offer to reverse a decades-long policy against direct negotiations with a state sponsor of terrorism. This is not a question of "rewarding Iran" for its misbehavior, as critics would have it, but rather a matter of making Iran decide whether it wants to be a pariah nation or take a path that could bring significant benefits to its own people. Good-faith agreement The Bush administration is right to pull out all the diplomatic stops to head off a showdown with Iran. The dramatic policy change announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice challenges Iran to put up or shut up. If it really wants to avoid a dangerous military confrontation, and if it really seeks only to acquire nuclear energy for peaceful uses, then it should be prepared to sit down with the United States and European allies to hammer out an agreement in good faith. With this move, the administration has given itself an alternative to the stalled talks between Iran and the EU3 -- Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- and a looming military confrontation. The agreement by six world powers announced yesterday to offer a package of incentives to convince Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program -- or else -- suggests the U.S. initiative has already borne fruit. The timing and backstage work that went into the decision suggests a level of diplomatic finesse that has eluded the administration in the past. This groundwork ...