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Kerry made this clear while announcing the appointment. He said, "He [Dobbins] has deep and longstanding relationships in the region ... Jim will continue building on diplomatic efforts to bring the conflict to a peaceful conclusion, actively engaging with states in the region and the international community."
Interestingly, Kerry left it vague as to the regional states where Dobbins would have "deep and longstanding relationships". This is where Dobbins' 2007 congressional testimony becomes important; in it, he narrated at some length how closely he worked with the Iranian diplomats to bring about the difficult transition in 2001 and more important, how obliging and keen Tehran was in working with the US.
To quote Dobbins, "America's rapid success in toppling the Taliban and replacing it with a broadly based, moderate successor ... depended heavily upon the support American military and diplomatic efforts received from all the neighboring states, notably Iran."
Dobbins recounted specific instances when the Iranians helped out in Bonn, "without which the Karzai government might never have been formed". But soon afterward the George W Bush administration opted to include Iran in the "axis of evil" instead of building up on the critical mass that formed in Bonn.
In a stunning disclosure, Dobbins said that nonetheless, two months after president George W Bush trotted out the thesis of the "axis of evil", the Iranians approached Dobbins again on the sidelines of an international conference at Geneva with yet another proposal of collaboration.
This time it was about Iran participating in a program to train a new Afghan National Army under American leadership. Dobbins noted:
Iranian participation, under American leadership, in a joint program of this sort would be a breathtaking departure after more than 20 years mutual hostility. It also represented a significant step beyond the quiet diplomatic cooperation we had achieved so far. Clearly, despite having been relegated by President Bush to the 'axis of evil', the Khatami government wanted to deepen its cooperation with Washington, and was prepared to do so in a most overt and public manner.
But, Dobbins recalled that there were no takers in Washington for the Iranian proposal although he approached the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, and national security advisor Condoleeza Rice and was even briefed an inter-agency meeting attended by defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Without doubt, what Dobbins brings into Obama's team is an invaluable insight into where things began going haywire for the US in Afghanistan, by overlooking "the impossibility of holding together disintegrating societies without the cooperation of adjoining states".
Dobbins concluded his testimony with the following advice to the Bush administration: "It's time to speak to Iran, unconditionally, and comprehensively."