re: #625 Gus 802

Obstacles to improved relations between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic of Iran remain. The U.S. objects to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, its nuclear weapons ambitions, and its violations of human rights. The Islamic Republic of Iran still has not recognized Israel’s right to exist and has hindered the Middle East peace process by arming militants, including Hamas, Hizballah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Although the Islamic Republic of Iran has contributed to positive reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tehran has also pursued policies to undermine stability in both countries. Additionally the U.S. Government is concerned with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s recent crackdown on human rights and detainment of civil society actors.

Despite these obstacles, U.S. and Iranian representatives have discussed a number of issues of concern over the years. U.S. and Iranian envoys cooperated during operations against the Taliban in 2001 and during the Bonn Conference in 2002, which established a broad-based government for the Afghan people under President Karzai. In 2007, representatives from the two countries met several times to discuss Iraq.

[Link: www.state.gov…]

You could say the exact same things about Pakistan and most of the Gulf countries…but we are not threatening to attack them constantly.

There is no question that the events of 911 provided an diplomatic opportunity to address many of these problems in the region, but we had an administration that was too inept, and too fixated on a lunatic neocon dream to take advantage of those opportunities,