Posted on 01/31/2004 10:56:14 AM PST by TennTuxedo
January 30, 2004
Lawmakers to Visit Iran, Meet Officials
By BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - As the State Department encourages wider contact with Iran, Congress is set to test sentiment for ending a quarter-century of icy relations by sending staff members to Tehran next month for talks with Iranian officials.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he hoped the visit, arranged at a dinner Wednesday involving several members of Congress and Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, would be followed by trips to Tehran by members of Congress and later by Bush administration policy-makers.
"They are showing some signs of wanting to improve relations," Specter said Friday by telephone from his Philadelphia office. "Now is a good time."
The State Department cleared the way for the meeting at the U.S. Capitol by giving Ambassador Mohammed Javad Zarif permission to go to Washington. Usually, travel by envoys from countries with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations is limited to a 25-mile radius from New York.
Specter is sending an assistant as part of the group to visit Tehran. He said he had consulted with a senior Bush administration official before taking up the subject with Zarif at the dinner.
Asked about such a visit to Tehran, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We've always encouraged exchanges, people-to-people exchanges, with Iranians, with Iran. We've certainly encouraged congressional travel in general."
"So it would be fine with us if that's what they decided to do," he said.
Nuclear terrorism and American democracy as exemplified by Congress are apt topics of discussion by the visiting delegation, a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
On granting the ambassador's request for a two-day trip to Washington, Boucher said, "It's done on a case-by-case basis. There were no objections of any national security grounds or other groups for this trip."
Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who backed Zarif's travel request and attended the dinner with him, said he thought a visit by congressional staffers to Tehran was a good idea. Nevertheless, he said, "I don't think it is set in stone."
Ney, who taught English in Iran in the early 1970s, said, "There are signs of reform in Iran, but I stress we should not read into the signs more than is currently happening."
Apparently, the visit would be the first by congressional staffers to Iran since Iran's 1979 revolution in which the government of the pro-U.S. shah was overthrown and the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was overrun by religious extremists. U.S. officials from the embassy were held hostage for 444 days.
Rep. Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., who attended the dinner, said he hoped "we would reach a point where it would be appropriate for members of the House and Senate to visit later this year."
Bereuter described the conversation with the Iranian ambassador as "a good discussion on how to build mutual confidence and understanding."
Administration officials appear to hold differing views about prospects for an accommodation with Iran, which President Bush two years ago denounced as part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.
Some officials are convinced a strong reformist element exists in Iran, receptive especially to young people's desires for modernization. Others believe fundamentalist Muslim clerics remain in ultimate control in Tehran and consistently have vetoed liberalization.
Specter said he told Zarif that if Iran wanted better relations with the United States, it should withdraw its support from Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that has fought a cross-border war with Israel and is listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department.
Iran provides weapons to Hezbollah through Syria, which effectively controls Lebanon, according to department officials.
The ambassador retorted that Iran is a force for stability in southern Lebanon, Specter said, but "I disagreed."
Specter said Iran was enormously impressed by the Bush administration's use of force in Iraq and had shown signs of wanting better relations. He cited Iran's decision to submit its nuclear facilities to international inspection.
Also, Specter said, "They have helped us in the fight against al-Qaida and in the Afghanistan situation."
"I don't think we have given them sufficient credit. They deserve credit" for their support against the terror network headed by Osama bin-Laden, he said.
It was interesting to say the least. Ijaz said his sources say that this delegation is coming to Iran to work out a deal with Iran.
According to Monsoor Ijaz, Iran is to give custody of some high ranking al qaeda operatives, including OBL-in exchange for the United States to stop its fight to rid Iran of rule by the mullahs.
It would be a better thing if they kept him.
Specter is sending an assistant as part of the group to visit Tehran.
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