Why Were Iran's Peace offers of 2001-2003 Resurface Rejected?

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By ProfessorPete (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo - Writer

Why Were Iran's Peace offers of 2001-2003 Resurface Rejected?

Between 2001-2003 American and Iranian Ambassadors worked feverishly to present proposals Created by the Iranians to begin a peace process in which Iran offered some very positive opportunities for both nations to share in achieving not only peace between them but most of the rest of the world.

Why Were Iran's Peace offers of 2001-2003 Resurface Rejected?
Now the News Resurfaces
This is old news, those with decent recall know that we all heard about it sometime back, but several sources have decided to publish it again. The story is that in spring of 2003, secretly; Iran sent a proposal to the White House to hoping to settle our differences with them.

The proposal is reputed to address a variety of USA worries, such as WMD proliferation, Iraq, terrorism and more. The Bush administration refused to negotiate with Iran and sabotaged the progress made by American and Iranian Ambassadors.

Knowing of the proposal, one begs to see more and there was a great deal more to be seen because it was not simply a proposal but a suggested ongoing process for peace negotiation, all of which the Bush administration ignored and/or rejected. The appearance is that Iran doggedly pursued the idea of an accord, but top Bushites turned their faces away from it.

Iran shared our concern about the Taliban, back in 2001/2002. Back then the US and Iran were cooperating in providing aid and began to discuss mutual interests for smooth relations between them.

Former U.S. Ambassadors, Nicholas Platt, Frank Wisner, and. Thomas Pickering were involved in discussions with Iranian U.N., ambassador Javad Zarif, as well as an American Professor at Rutgers, Hooshang Amirahmadi, of the American Iranian Council.

At a dinner at Ambassador Zarif's home in September 2002, the American Iranian Council met with Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi. Professor Amirahmadi's notes display the foreign minister as telling the group, that Iran was ready to normalize relations with the USA, and even suggested that the USA initiate the process.

The discussion included a joint U.S.-Iranian cooperation against Saddam Hussein. The State Department and National Security Council were brought up to speed on the issues, and in early 2003 Ambassador Zarif had meetings with Ryan Crocker and Zalmay Khalilzad in Geneva, and Paris.

The Swiss ambassador in Tehran related Iran's enthusiasm and it has been published recently in The Washington Post.

Iran followed the Swiss version with their original proposal directly to the State Department, which was transmitted, to the White House to the White House.

In the original Iran proposal, Iran discusses complete candor on their part and that they would take great care to assure the U.S. that She will not create nuclear weapons. Iran also offered their active participation in creating a support for Iraqi stabilization. Iran discussed the possibility of ending material support to Palestinian opposition groups and pressuring Hamas to end violence against non-combatants of Israel (But not in the occupied territories). Iran would favor Hezbollah's transformation into a peaceful political organization in Lebanon and would support the Saudi idea of a two-Nation, solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle.

Iran requested, mutual respect, an end of sanctions, support from the US for peaceful nuclear technology and that the US remove Iran's Axis of Evil inclusion.

However, all of this positive progress was rejected by Bushites. When the next set of meetings in Geneva was scheduled, no US Ambassadors attended. Less Conservative Iranians, which were open to these negotiations, were thus discredited

Had the US and Iran gotten together to admonish Iraq many lives might have been saved. The Bushites however, wanted no peace, that would not fit the Mein Kampf, 1984, planned conspiracy to keep everyone in fear and turmoil so they could steal the billions, the oil, and America's freedom.

1 | 2

Professor Bagnolo has majored in: Cultural Anthropology, Architectural design, painting, creative writing. As a child prodigy, abed with polio for almost two years, he was offered an opportunity to skip three grades at age 8.
Later He was a (more...)

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.