BBC: Bush Rejected Iranian Peace Offer In 2003

Tuesday, 23 January 2007, 11:56 am
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Bush Rejected Iranian Peace Offer

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6274147.stm

Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight program. 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 program 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.

But as soon as it got to the White House, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil'... reasserted itself

… snip…

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6274147.stm

ENDS

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