Don’t Bomb Iran

summary: Former senior NSC official for Mid-East affairs reveals a
May 2003 approach from Iran, sent through Switzerland, to negotiate
with US on its nuclear program, and its support for so-called terrorist
organisations. The US administration refused to discuss anything, and
reprimanded the Swiss for even passing the offer to them. State
department comment this week: the regime in Tehran is not going to
change its stripes, implying that there is not going to be a negotiated
settlement. Remember also the March 2005 offer, from Iran that was
not even responded to by the West (including intensive permanent
onsite inspections, as I recall)

http://smh.com.au/news/world/us-accused-of-blowing-chance-for-iran-
deal/2006/02/21/1140284067509.html#

US accused of blowing chance for Iran deal

Reuters

By Gregory Beals in New York
February 22, 2006

IRAN offered in May 2003 to open talks with the US on everything from
its nuclear program to its support for groups Washington regards as
terrorist, but the Bush Administration turned it down, a former
Administration official says.

The offer, from Sadegh Kharazi, Iran’s ambassador to France and
nephew of the then foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi, was passed on to
the State Department by the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, who
represents US interests in Iran, said Flynt Leverett, a former senior
director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council.

Mr Leverett said the document, which he read, indicated that Iran
wanted to negotiate a political bargain with the US.

“The Iranians acknowledged that WMD [weapons of mass destruction]
and support for terror were serious causes of concern for us, and they
were willing to negotiate,” he said. “The message had been approved
by all the highest levels of authority. They wanted us to deal with
sanctions, security guarantees, normalisation of relations, and support
for integration of Iran into the World Trade Organisation.”

The fax was one of a series of informal soundings that emanated from
Tehran in the months after the US-led invasion of Iraq. Iran’s envoys to
Sweden and Britain also began sending signals that the regime was
ready to negotiate a deal, according to a former Western diplomat.

Iran was sending messages through other back-channels as well,
according to Paul Pillar, who served as the CIA’s national intelligence
officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005.

But the Bush Administration was in no mood for conversation or
political bargains, the former officials said.

Mr Leverett, who left government in mid-2003, said the Administration
rejected the Iranian offer and instead sent a complaint to the Swiss
ambassador, Tim Guldimann, saying he had overstepped his role as
an intermediary by passing it on in the first place.

Critics, including the two former Bush Administration officials,
European diplomats, and policy experts, said the US may have
squandered an opportunity to negotiate an end to Iran’s nuclear
program. According to Mr Leverett and Mr Pillar, the Administration’s
priority was to avoid negotiations with the regime, out of concern it
would imply acceptance of its continuation in office.

Since then, Iran’s government has become even more conservative,
making the prospect of further negotiations more problematic. “No one
at a senior level was willing to push Iran on diplomacy,” Mr Leverett
said.

Was there at least a chance that we could have gotten something
going? Yes, there was a chance,” he said.

The State Department disputes that there was ever a prospect for
credible direct negotiations with Iran. “The presumption that the regime
in Iran is going to change its stripes is specious,” a department
spokesman said. “Was there a credible approach from the Iranian
Government with an offer that made any kind of sense? Never at any
time.” A White House spokesman declined to discuss Iran’s 2003
overtures.

Since then US relations with Iran have sharply deteriorated. Last June
Iranians elected Mahmoud Ahmadinejad president, replacing the more
moderate Mohammed Khatami, and the new government has resumed
the enrichment of uranium.

Next month, the confrontation moves to the United Nations Security
Council, with the US claiming that Iran is trying to develop nuclear
weapons and Iran saying the program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, addressed the European
Parliament in Brussels on Monday, assuring EU politicians that Tehran
had no ambitions to make nuclear weapons.

He also tried to hose down some of the more inflammatory comments
Mr Ahmadinejad has made in regards to Tehran wanting to “wipe Israel
from the map”, saying that the President had been misunderstood.

“Nobody can remove a country from the map. This is a
misunderstanding in Europe of what our President mentioned,” he told
a news conference, speaking in English.

Newsday, Reuters