[Dialogue] Ex-aide Says Rice Misled Congress on Iran

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Thursday, February 15, 2007 by Reuters <http://www.reuters.com>


Ex-aide Says Rice Misled Congress on Iran 

by Carol Giacomo

 

Controversy over a possible missed U.S. opportunity for rapprochement with
Iran grew on Wednesday as former aide accused Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice of misleading Congress on the issue.

Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was
headed by Rice, said a proposal vetted by Tehran's most senior leaders was
sent to the United States in May 2003 and was akin to the 1972 U.S. opening
to China.

Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said he was confident it
was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but "the
administration rejected the overture."

Rice's spokesman denied she misled Congress and reiterated that she did not
see the proposal.

Separately, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warned Iran it risked
further U.N. and other sanctions if it did not halt uranium enrichment as
the U.N. Security Council demanded.

He stressed there was still time for diplomacy before Iran reached a
critical point in its nuclear capability and said conflict with Iran was not
inevitable.

Washington remains patient and committed to negotiations with Tehran and its
carrot-and-stick approach with other major powers is influencing Iran's
internal debate, Burns told the Brookings Institution think tank.

Leverett, speaking at a conference hosted by the New America Foundation
think tank, said the 2003 overture "was a serious proposal" for a
comprehensive agenda for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

"The Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice is misleading
Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal," he said.

Testifying before a U.S. Congress committee last week, Rice, said about
Leverett's previous public comments on the Iranian proposal: "I don't know
what Flynt Leverett's talking about."

She faulted him for not telling her, "We have a proposal from Iran and we
really ought to take it."

On Wednesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "What she said
is she has no recollection of having seen it. She has said that repeatedly."

Leverett and others have represented the proposal as a missed opportunity
that could have defused tensions with Iran which have grown to the point
that the U.S. administration has been forced to deny it plans military
action against Tehran.

Leverett said Rice should apologize for calling his competence into
question.

He said he had left the National Security Council, which advises the
president on security issues, in March 2003 before the Iranian proposal was
received. He returned to the CIA where he previously worked and soon after
left government. Hence, he was not in a position to make this case directly
to Rice, he said.

Leverett said Powell, in a conversation about the Iranian proposal, told him
he "couldn't sell it at the White House." This was evidence it had been
discussed there, he said.

The proposal was transmitted in May 2003 by the Swiss ambassador in Tehran,
Tim Guldimann, who represented U.S. interests there. Washington has not had
diplomatic relations with Iran since two years after the 1979 Islamic
revolution.

According to a copy of the proposal posted on The Washington Post Web site
and cited by Leverett, it contains considerable detail about approaching
issues of central interest to the United States and Iran.

This included an end to Iran's support for anti-Israel militants and
acceptance of Israel's right to exist.

It carried a cover letter from Guldimann, who said the proposal was approved
by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, and
then-President Mohammed Khatami.

 

C Reuters 2007

###

 

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