Washington 'snubbed Iran offer'
BBC's Newsnight programme is reporting that Dick Cheney's office turned down an offer from Iran in 2003, in which the Iranians offered all that the US could have wanted.
Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.
Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.
But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.
The offers came in a letter, seen by Newsnight, which was unsigned but which the US state department apparently believed to have been approved by the highest authorities.
In return for its concessions, Tehran asked Washington to end its hostility, to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and repatriate its members.
"We thought it was a very propitious moment to do that," Lawrence Wilkerson told Newsnight.
"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."
The irony, of course, is that Washington are now demanding that the Iranians now do what they were offering to do four years ago.
Since Iran made this offer the situation in Iraq has descended into complete anarchy and the Baker Report has called for Washington to negotiate with Iraq's neighbours as a way to end the impasse, something which the Bush regime continue to refuse to do.
However, as always, Cheney's hand can be detected behind almost every stupid policy that this administration insists on adopting.
As they march towards a possible confrontation with Iran, the release of this news proves that any future conflict will, once again, be a war of choice.
Click title for full article.
tag: Iran, Iraq, Cheney, foreign policy, Ahmadinejad
2 comments:
Hi Kel,
I covered this back in April, when a smattering of news first broke. Mostly, it was ignored here and elsewhere at the time, but I guess now that the Iran threat is ramping up, at least the UK press is noting it. Nothing about it here, of course.
The Cheney Parade of War
Bhc,
That's a good article. Over here the BBC Newsnight team have covered this but most of the dailies have failed to pick up on it.
We really do seem to live in an alternate universe where reality is what they say it is.
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