May 15, 2008
"I think that the one area where the Iraq Study Group recommendations
have not been followed up is in terms of reaching out the Iranians. And
I would just tell you I've gone through kind of an evolution on this
myself. I co-chaired with Zbig a Council on Foreign Relations study on
U.S. policy toward Iran, in 2004. But we were looking at a different
Iran in many respects. We were looking at an Iran where Khatami was the
president. We were looking at an Iran where their behavior in Iraq
actually was fairly ambivalent in 2004. They were doing some things that
were not helpful, but they were also doing some things that were helpful.
"And one of the questions that I think historians will have to take a
look at is whether there was a missed op****tunity at that time. But with
the election of Ahmadinejad and the very unambiguous role that Iran is
playing in a negative sense in Iraq today, you know, I sort of sign up
with Tom Friedman's column today. We need to figure out a way to develop
some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk
with them. If there's going to be a discussion, then they need
something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the
demander with them not feeling that they need anything from us.
"I think that my own view, just my personal view, would be we ought to
look for ways outside of government to open up the channels and get more
of a flow of people back and forth. There are actually a fair number of
Iranians that come to the United States to visit. We ought to increase
the flow going the other way, not of Iranians but of Americans. And I
think that may be one opening that creates some space, perhaps, over
some period of time."
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4230
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