U.S. Sets Terms for Dialogue With Iran
Dec 30, 5:03 PM (ET)
By GEORGE GEDDA
(AP) Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, answers a question during a news conference in Kerman, Ian,...
Full Image
WASHINGTON (AP) - Citing positive developments with Iran, the State Department indicated interest Tuesday in opening a dialogue with the Islamic Republic so long as it adheres to its international commitments.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said he sees no change in the 25-year U.S.-Iranian estrangement unless Washington changes its tone and behavior.
At the same time, Khatami thanked the United States for the relief it has sent following Friday's devastating earthquake in southeastern Iran.
Secretary of State Colin Powell alluded to "encouraging" moves by Iran in an interview with the Washington Post. He said Iran was demonstrating a "new attitude" on certain issues.
Without contradicting Powell, White House spokesman Trent Duffy, accompanying President Bush in Crawford, Tex., put a more negative cast on the situation.
"We've made clear to the Iranian government on many occasions our grave concerns regarding its support for terrorism, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and other of its activities," Duffy said.
The normally frigid air between Washington and Tehran seemed to thaw slightly in recent days after Iran eagerly accepted the U.S. aid offer.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage placed a phone call to Iran's U.N. envoy, Javad Zariv, who was in Tehran at the time of the tragedy.
Armitage called at 3 a.m. Tehran time with the assistance offer. To the surprise of U.S. officials, Zariv returned the call within 30 minutes. The United States is among the principal relief donors internationally.
Powell's upbeat comments apparently referred, in part, to Iran's recent decision to allow surprise inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said there could be no forward movement unless Iran fulfilled that commitment.
"Iran's follow-through on its commitments to the IAEA and to the international community are critical," he said.
He also noted that the IAEA has made clear that Iran will suffer serious consequences if it does not live up to its pledges.
The Bush administration has accused Iran of attempting to conceal a nuclear weapons program that, it says, began in the mid-1980's. Iran has insisted that its nuclear programs are designed for peaceful purposes.
Much like Duffy, Ereli highlighted U.S. concerns about Iranian support for militant Islamic groups.
"It's important to note that Iran is among the world's major foremost state sponsors of terror," he said.
Discussing the relief effort, Ereli said the U.S. Agency for International Development has put together an 84-member team of experts.
The team includes 60 Boston-area doctors and other medical workers who arrived in the devastated city of Bam on Tuesday and began setting up a mobile hospital.
The team is expected to begin treating patients on Wednesday.
In addition, Ereli said prepositioned relief commodities were being sent from Dubai to Bam. They include 12,500 blankets and enough plastic sheeting to provide shelter for 3,000 families.
In Tehran, Khatami downplayed any suggestion that a warming trend with Washington was at hand.
While thanking the United States for its generosity, Khatami said, "Humanitarian issues should not be intertwined with deep and chronic political problems. If we see change both in tone and behavior of the U.S. administration, then a new situation will develop in our relations."
Besides Cuba, Iran is believed to be the only country in the world with which the United States does not maintain a political dialogue.
That situation has persisted since the hostage crisis of 1979-81, except for a brief period earlier this year when the two countries exchanged views on developments in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which border on Iran. The discussions were held under United Nations auspices.
The Clinton administration saw a possible opening toward more normal relations in 1997 with Khatami's election. In hopes of bringing about a thaw, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright apologized for past U.S. actions in Iran, including the coup that the CIA sponsored there in 1953.
But the initiative fell on deaf ears, partly because foreign policy decisions in Iran are in the hands of conservative mullahs known for their staunch anti-American stand.
Some analysts have suggested that Iran might respond positively to a U.S. crackdown on the Iraq-based Iranian exile group known as Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK), which is attempting to overthrow Iran's theocracy.
U.S. forces in Iraq disarmed the MEK after the Iraq war. The administration also closed down the Washington offices of another counter-revolutionary Iranian group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Washington lists both groups as terrorist organizations. Iran praised the U.S. steps but refrained from making any reciprocal gestures. |
