[WCUSP] Fw: Iran Calls for Dialogue with the United States

[Libby or Mort Frank]

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Subject: Iran Calls for Dialogue with the United States


> Iran: Calls for Dialogue with the United States
> 
> by David Culp
> 
> Published on Friday, September 22, 2006
> by CommonDreams.org
> http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0922-27.htm
> 
> "We believe the production or use of nuclear weapons is
> immoral."
> - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
> 
> Hours after he spoke to the United Nations, the Iranian
> president made this clear, unequivocal statement to a
> group of us during a private meeting in New York. The
> Mennonite Central Committee organized an extraordinary,
> private session for about 50 people to dialogue with
> President Ahmadinejad about the escalating crisis
> between the U.S. and Iran.
> 
> I left the hour-long meeting convinced, as did many, if
> not all, of my colleagues, that the Iranian leader is a
> deeply religious person who approaches the issue of
> nuclear weapons from a moral perspective. The Iranian
> leader expressed great interest in establishing a
> dialogue with the religious community in the United
> States, and he explained that he views Judaism,
> Christianity, and Islam as three co-equal religions.
> 
> Of course, I suspect that all of the people in this
> meeting had many areas where we probably disagree with
> the policies of the Iranian government. For instance,
> FCNL is concerned about political prisoners in Iran,
> religious tolerance, and Iran's position on Israel. We
> also were aware that the Iranian president met with us
> as part of his effort to defuse the looming crisis
> between the Iranian government and the international
> community over Iran's nuclear energy program.
> 
> But I've been a lobbyist working for the abolition of
> nuclear weapons for more than a decade, and I've talked
> about these issues with a lot of people. Ahmadinejad
> impressed me as someone who had thought about these
> issues a lot. He's a former engineer, who is thinking
> through the arguments from a number of different
> perspectives.
> 
> For instance, although he starts any discussion by
> saying that nuclear weapons are immoral, Ahmadinejad
> also reminded us that the Soviet Union had thousands of
> nuclear weapons, which didn't prevent their government
> from collapsing. He added that, during Iran's war with
> Iraq in the 1980s, Iraq's alliance with a country with
> nuclear weapons (presumably he was referring to the
> United States) didn't have any impact on the war. He
> convinced me that Iran is not interested in developing
> nuclear weapons.
> 
> Iran is interested in developing nuclear energy. As a
> former engineer, he believes that nuclear fuel is the
> cleanest fuel there is and he explained that this
> energy source is critical for the future development of
> his country. And Ahmadinejad bristles at suggestions
> that the United States or anyone else would try to
> dictate how his country pursued its energy needs.
> 
> But how do we get beyond the current impasse, we asked
> him? Ahmadinejad suggested that the UN's Committee on
> Disarmament, based in Geneva, might be one forum where
> these discussions should take place. He then offered a
> proposal: Iran will open all of its nuclear facilities
> to inspections, if the United States will also open its
> facilities to inspections. Neither Iran nor the U.S.
> have implemented the Additional Protocol to the nuclear
> Non-Proliferation Treaty that includes additional
> inspections, although we at FCNL believe both countries
> should do so. He added that the United States should
> refrain from building so-called second or third
> generation nuclear weapons.
> 
> Now, I'm not endorsing Iran's proposals or even arguing
> this is the only path to peace. And, in our meeting in
> New York on Wednesday, the Iranian president made other
> comments that I found deeply troubling. In particular,
> I was struck by his comments about the Holocaust. He
> did not deny the Holocaust, but he still conveyed a
> view that the matter is debatable. In these comments he
> sounded a lot like politicians in the U.S. Congress who
> deny that global warming is a fact, even though there
> is a significant body of evidence that cannot be
> denied.
> 
> But when he spoke about issues that I cover, the
> nuclear weapons issues, what struck me is that the
> Iranian president was offering a reasonable basis for
> real negotiations. Since Ahmadinejad took office, Iran
> has been backing away from permitting full inspections
> of its nuclear program. But I think this is a
> bargaining stance to start negotiations. Iran wants to
> have full rights for civilian nuclear energy, including
> nuclear enrichment. Iranian leaders also want some kind
> of assurance that the United States will not bomb their
> country.
> 
> The day I left Washington to go to New York for this
> meeting, I attended a hearing of the Senate Foreign
> Relations Committee. The contrast was striking.
> Nicholas Burns, the number three official at the State
> Department, spent most of that hearing lobbing what I
> can only describe as rhetorical hand grenades at Iran.
> In his first State of the Union address, President Bush
> described Iran as part of the "axis of evil." That's
> still the approach of some in the U.S. government.
> 
> But what is even more striking is the pride U.S.
> officials take in insisting they will not even talk to
> Iran. Nicholas Burns, in his testimony this week to the
> Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made a point of
> saying he has never met with an Iranian government
> official. Now here is a man who has been part of the
> U.S. foreign service for decades, and he made a point
> of pride that he had never met with any Iranian
> official. If the U.S. continues to insist that no
> dialogue is possible with Iran, then war is the likely
> alternative.
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> David Culp is a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on
> National Legislation's Quaker Nuclear Disarmament
> Program. He can be reached at 202-547-6000 or
> david at fcnl.org. FCNL, the oldest registered religious
> lobby in Washington, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in
> the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide
> network of tens of thousands of people from every state
> in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic
> justice, peace, and good government. For more
> information: http://www.fcnl.org
> 
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