Six months after halting talks with Iran, the Bush administration said yesterday that it is prepared to resume discreet discussions with the Islamic republic over Iraq, Afghanistan and other issues.
"We are prepared to engage in limited discussions with the government of Iran about areas of mutual interest as appropriate," Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said in testimony prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But he stressed that the talks would not be a "broad dialogue with the aim of normalizing relations," which were terminated after the 1979 revolution.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage welcomes "limited discussions."
(Ray Lustig -- The Washington Post)
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U.S. and Iranian officials had met several times in Geneva both before and after the war in Iraq, with the last session taking place May 3. But the administration halted the contacts after the May 12 bombings of residential compounds in Saudi Arabia, alleging that Iran was harboring al Qaeda operatives responsible for the attacks.
The Iranians have denied the charge and have repeatedly pressed the administration to restart the contacts. Iran, which shares a long border with Iraq, has sought to demonstrate its willingness to cooperate with the administration, including recognizing the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and contributing resources for Iraq at a donors conference last week in Madrid.
The Bush administration has urged Iran to turn over al Qaeda members. Armitage in his testimony linked Iran's cooperation on al Qaeda to better relations with the United States, saying "resolution of this issue would be an important step in U.S.-Iranian relations." But he told reporters that it is not a prerequisite to restarting the talks.
Iran has privately suggested to the administration that it will turn over al Qaeda members in exchange for captured members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK), an Iranian opposition group that had operated out of Iraq. Armitage ruled out such a deal yesterday, "because we can't be sure of the way they'd be treated," referring to the MEK members. He said officials were questioning MEK members to determine who had terrorist connections. "In my understanding, a certain number of those do," he said, adding that they will face charges.
Under questioning, Armitage said it was a mistake for the U.S. military to have arranged a cease-fire agreement with the MEK during the war, a decision that alarmed Iran. "We shouldn't have been signing a cease-fire with a foreign terrorist organization," he said.
