They are harboring al Qaeda leaders there, and we have demanded that they hand them over to the relevant countries, Mr. Bush said to reporters in the White House on Monday.
Having accused the Iranian authorities of having nuclear programs that they should freeze, the U.S. leader said Washington was working with other countries to persuade Iran give up its plans.
They should also stop financing terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah (the Party of the Allah, as the name of this pro-Iranian organization operating in Southern Lebanon, is translated; it does not recognize the existence of Israel and is subsidized from its HQ in Tehran), which pose a huge threat in different parts of the world, said President Bush who included Tehran in the "axis of evil" along with Baghdad and Pyongyang at the dawn of his presidency.
(Every time when the fate of the White House incumbent is about to be determined, and the presidential election day is round the corner, any U.S. administration, regardless of the party it represents, tries to play the "Iranian card", which it sees as a trump card. All the U.S. administrations have and still do put forward three traditional accusations against Iran. They are undermining the Middle East peace process, aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons, and violation of human rights (tortures in Iranian prisons, prosecution of political opponents of the regime, persecution and too tough measures in regard to drug addicts and drug dealers. It's been like this since 1979 when the Islamic revolution won in shah-ruled Iran, which was then considered a U.S. stronghold in the region. But it did not only topple the regime of Mohammad Rez, but also publicly affronted Washington (e.g. the nearly 1.5-year-long story around the release of U.S. hostages in Tehran.)
Clearly, far from all in the U.S. think in confrontation terms about Iran. Hence, famous U.S. political scientist Zbiegnew Brzezinski deems it possible to launch "an election dialogue with Iran on foreign policy issues of bilateral interest."
We advocate a dialogue with Iran in certain areas of mutual interest, and deem it possible to invite Iran to participate in regional stabilization, said Mr. Brzezinski in the report, Iran: Time for New Relations, which he prepared together with other experts, including Robert M. Gates, deputy chief of the CIA, for the influential political institute - the Council on International Relations.
The report contains recommendations for the U.S. administration on the need to review the U.S. (hostile) policy towards Iran.
Direct attempts to topple the Iranian regime will not succeed, and intervention will not allay concerns caused by Iran's policy, the report says.
Authors of the report suggest that Iran be engaged in a dialogue in the areas where U.S.-Iranian interests coincide. Proposed measures include inviting Iran to participate in the dialogue on stabilization in the Middle East, and also the U.S. consent to Iran's development of civil nuclear programs if it fulfils all its obligations to the IAEA.
The authors of the report, in this case, deem it realistic for the U.S. to give Iran the opportunity to obtain fuel for nuclear reactors at reasonable prices, if it observes non-proliferation principles.
Conditions around Iran have changed, and Iran is changing too, Mr. Brzezinski noted.
His proposals to the U.S. administration to launch a dialogue with Iran came soon after the Senate 9/11 commission stated that it had information about al Qaeda terrorists going via Iran.
However, the authors of the report doubt that Iran had anything to do with the 9/11 events.
Relations between Iran and al Qaeda were hostile, Mr. Brzezinski said. Moreover, Iranian special services arrested several members of this terrorist network.
Having stressed Iran's positive role in the efforts to normalize the situation in Afghanistan, the authors of the report remarked that Iran still supported terrorist groups such as Hezbollah.
The suggestion of the authors of the report on possible changes in the U.S. policy towards Iran aroused protests among some Iranian emigrants in the U.S. who took to the street in front of the Washington Club where the report was presented.
