A senior former US official has told the BBC’s Newsnight program that in 2003 the US State Department, which was at that time under Colin Powell, received a letter that was purportedly from Iran’s elite. In the letter, Iran proposed ending support for the Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, making its nuclear program more transparent, and helping the US to stabilize Iraq. In return for its concessions, Iran sought an end to the hostility from Washington, an end to the economic sanctions, and the disbandment of an Iranian rebel group in Iraq.
It is reported from one of Colin Powell’s top former aides that the state department was in favor of the plan, but in the end, or rather in the beginning, was overruled by higher powers.
But as soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President’s office, the old mantra of ‘We don’t talk to evil’… reasserted itself.
Am I the only one not surprised that when faced with the brightest prospect for peace with Tehran the Bush White House pulls out the Neo-conservative agenda of their elders and adopts the 5-year-old mentality of stubbornness? Ironically, the same things Iran was proposing to surrender in its letter are the same things the US is seeking to get Iran to do presently. Since that time Iran’s support for Hezbollah allowed it to wage a bloody war with Israel and gain support in Lebanon and across the Middle East, its support for Hamas allowed it to win parliamentary elections in Palestine thus hijacking the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. and it now is under sanctions by the United Nations for its nuclear program.
When o’ when will we ever be rid of this incompetency?