November 20, 2008(LPAC)--At a meeting of the National Iranian American Council on Nov. 18, about 300 attendees of the event held in a conference room of the US Senate Hart Office building, broke into spontaneous applause several times at the mention of the end of the Bush Administration.
Trita Parsi, an Iranian-American who heads the NIAC, opened the conference as one of the 20 experts who have signed a document for a new start with Iran, aiming at opening full diplomatic relations with that country.
Amb. James Dobbins is a co-chair of the American Foreign Policy Project that produced the proposal, and he spoke strongly about opening up the talks {now} through the U.S. Ambassadors in Baghdad, Kabul, New York, and Geneva with their Iranian counterparts, in addition to the nuclear talks. Dobbins was the Ambassador who served as the Special US Envoy to the Afghanistan opposition right after the 9/11 attacks, and he talked about the complete cooperation that Iran demonstrated after these attacks. Dobbins said that the Administration should take the political shackles off the ambassadors and let them talk -- with no prior preconditions.
Iranian-American professor Farideh Fahri, a human rights activist, who teaches at the University of Hawaii also stressed that the U.S. must {drop} "regime change" in Iran once and for all--or there would be no chance to stop Iran's hardliners.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Rep. Tierney (D-MA) gave very strong speeches about dialogue between the U.S. Congress and the Iranian parliament, and any "people to people" contacts that may be possible. They urged the immediate implementation of the idea of opening a U.S. interests section.
The NIAC meeting was one of several recent events where senior diplomats who have been shut out of the Bush-Cheney administration, after serving many different administrations in the institution of the presidency, stepped forward to counter the insane war drives. On Nov. 17, at Georgetown University, Edward Djerejian (one of the top Middle East diplomats for Bush Sr., and the only Ambassador who served in both Syria and Israel), said that he believes that an Israeli-Syria agreement "is within our grasp." He said that all the key issues -- land, peace, access to water -- have already been negotiated, and that now what it will take is "a strong American hand." An Israeli-Syrian agreement is more "doable" at this point than an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. But, the Palestinian issue is still the single most important issue in the Muslim world. He also said that it's a mistake that the Administration hasn't had channels to elements of Hamas.
In response to a question from LPAC about Iran, Djerejian urged the incoming Administration to open a strategic dialogue with Iran, specifying that everything should be on the table -- except for regime change, which should be {off} the table. "I think we can negotiate successfully" with Iran, he said, if we do it intelligently. Overall, Djerejian urged the incoming Administration to engage both Iran and Syria, and he said that with a strong President and a strong Secretary of State, he is hopefull that "we'll be able to get things done."
