This is the original piece of News from the IRNA News Agency --- Pilot
Senator Kerry would seek direct talks with Iran: adviser
IRNA
6 Feb 2004
Washington, Feb 6, IRNA -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry
will seek direct talks with Iran if he wins the White House, his
foreign policy chief said Thursday.
Rand Beers, national security issues coordinator for the
Massachusetts senator, was critical of President George W. Bush for
shunning direct dialogue with Iran after branding it a member of an
"axis of evil," dispatches indicated.
Speaking to a foreign policy forum, Beers said the question of
nuclear non-proliferation was one of the most significant issues
facing the world and Washington should press harder to advance
negotiations.
Beers said Kerry, currently leading the pack in the race for the
Democratic presidential nomination, sought more direct efforts to thaw
relations with Iran that have been frozen since the 1979 Islamic
Revolution.
"John Kerry is not saying that he is looking for better relations
with Iran. He is looking for a dialogue with Iran," Beers said. "There
are some issues on which we really need to sit down with the
Iranians."
He listed the cultivation of opium poppies in neighboring
Afghanistan, terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation as among the
questions Kerry would like to take up directly with Tehran.
"It`s a realistic sitting down and having the kinds of discussions
that we`re just not having because this administration is so tied in
its own ideological views of Iran and waiting for the Iranian regime
to collapse."
He said Kerry would want to work with a "broad range of countries"
to stem the traffic in materials that could fall into the wrong hands
and help make nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
"We`re going to have look at international (non-proliferation)
regimes that currently exist and probably go through some revisions of
those regimes in order to find a way to approach and address these
problems," Beers said.
http://www.irna.ir/?LANG=EN&PART=_HOME&TYPE=HP#2004_02_0618_59_176Well, Kerry's got the Islamist vote locked up. Wonder if he's taking their money, too..?