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Lugar: US should talk to Iran
[Iran Press TV Latest] Senior US Republican Senator Richard Lugar maintains that the post-election mayhem in Iran should not stop Washington from sitting at the negotiation table with Tehran.

The Indiana Senator, appearing on the CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday said that the US should enter talks with Iran to persuade the country to abandon its nuclear program.

"We would sit down because our objective is to eliminate the nuclear program that is in Iran," Sen. Lugar said.

Lugar said that President Barack Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton should brace themselves for a possible meeting with their Iranian counterparts.
And what exactly are we supposed to 'offer'? Because you know the Iranians won't offer a thing. After they put down the June 12 revolution (assuming they do) the Iranians aren't going to be in a mood to offer America anything except the back of their hand. Khamenei in particular will be looking to show his supporters that he has Iran's foreign policy firmly under control, and that means giving us exactly nothing.
The Republican, who is a member of the foreign relations committee, reiterated that the present unrest in Iran should open a new window of opportunity for the United States.

"We really have to get into the nuclear weapons. We have to get into terrorism of Iran in other areas of the Middle East. Now we have new opportunity in which we might very well say, 'We want communication with Iran. We want openness of the press. We don't want to have to use Twitter. We want the press on the ground.'"

"In order to have any kind of a relationship, we need to be able to talk to people, hear from people, argue with people," Lugar added.
Again, a 'relationship' pre-supposes that we, the West, are going to offer Iran something to turn them away from nuclear weapons and terrorism. What exactly do you propose, Senator? Let's hear it.
Iran has lashed out at Western countries, including the US and some European states, for their efforts to dramatize the post-election unrest in the country and capitalize on the Issue.
Posted by: Fred 2009-06-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=272583