Ex - Aide Says Rice Misled Congress on Iran

By REUTERS

Filed at 9:31 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Controversy over a possible missed U.S. opportunity for rapprochement with Iran grew on Wednesday as former aide accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of misleading Congress on the issue.

Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council when it was headed by Rice, said a proposal vetted by Tehran's most senior leaders was sent to the United States in May 2003 and was akin to the 1972 U.S. opening to China.

Speaking at a conference on Capitol Hill, Leverett said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but ``the administration rejected the overture.''

Rice's spokesman denied she misled Congress and reiterated that she did not see the proposal.

Separately, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warned Iran it risked further U.N. and other sanctions if it did not halt uranium enrichment as the U.N. Security Council demanded.

He stressed there was still time for diplomacy before Iran reached a critical point in its nuclear capability and said conflict with Iran was not inevitable.

Washington remains patient and committed to negotiations with Tehran and its carrot-and-stick approach with other major powers is influencing Iran's internal debate, Burns told the Brookings Institution think tank.

Leverett, speaking at a conference hosted by the New America Foundation think tank, said the 2003 overture ``was a serious proposal'' for a comprehensive agenda for U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

``The Bush administration up to and including Secretary Rice is misleading Congress and the American public about the Iran proposal,'' he said... http://tinyurl.com/3y79mu [Open in new window]

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The Bush administration and the roach-like neocons that infest it have been angling for wider war in the middle-east since before 9/11, since before the (s)election of 2000. Nothing they say can be believed.

If you like Americans being killed for war-profits & 'greater Israel' then support them, if not you must be in favor of , at least, impeachment & removal from office. It really is that simple. How to accomplish that is not.