Thursday, January 18, 2007
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON -- An Iranian offer to help the United States stabilize
Iraq and end its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas was
rejected by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2003, a former top
State Department official told the British Broadcasting Corp.
The U.S. State Department was open to the offer, which came
in an unsigned letter sent shortly after the American invasion
of Iraq, Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin
Powell's chief of staff, told BBC's Newsnight in a program
broadcast Wednesday night. But, Wilkerson said, Cheney vetoed
the deal.
"We thought it was a very propitious moment" to
strike a deal, Wilkerson said. "But as soon as it got
to the White House, and as soon as it got to the vice president's
office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil' ... reasserted
itself."
A spokesman for the State Department said Thursday he wasn't
aware of any letter from the Iranians to the U.S. government
in 2003.
"Far as I know, there's never been an offer from the
Iranian Government on those kinds of concerns," said Tom
Casey, the state department's deputy spokesman.
Wilkerson said that, in return for its cooperation, Tehran
asked Washington to lift sanctions and to dismantle the Mujahedeen
Khalq, an Iranian opposition group which has bases in Iraq.
Iran also offered to increase the transparency of its nuclear
program, according to Wilkerson.
Wilkerson has been a frequent critic of the Bush administration
in general and Cheney in particular, holding the vice president
responsible for the mistreatment of detainees and the failure
of Iraq's postwar planning.
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