Thursday, December 24, 2009
He wants to go, but how he would be viewed as anything other than a supplicant giving a slap in the face to those fighting the regime there is a mystery to me: Kerry Floats Plan to Visit Tehran
Sen. John Kerry has suggested becoming the first high-level U.S. emissary to make a public visit to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a move White House officials say they won't oppose.
The offer comes as mass protests against Iran's regime are resurfacing and a U.S.-imposed deadline nears to broach international sanctions against Iran.
"This sounds like the kind of travel a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee would -- and should -- undertake," said a White House official, adding it would be at Sen. Kerry's own behest.
It's unclear whether Iran would welcome the visit, and it would be controversial within both countries. The Iranian government has rebuffed other recent White House efforts to establish a direct dialogue.
The Obama administration hasn't decided whether to make Sen. Kerry its official representative if he goes, but as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Kerry can visit if the White House and Tehran both approve.
Many opponents of Tehran's regime oppose such a visit, fearing it would lend legitimacy to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a time when his government is under continuing pressure from protests and opposition figures. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets again this week to voice their opposition to the government following the death of a reformist cleric...
Meanwhile, Tom Gross notes that for the first time, The New York Times has allowed to be published an op-ed calling for the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Kerry must have the place confused with Paris, and the mullahs confused with the North Vietnamese. Next thing you know, he'll testify to Congress about our troops 'terrorizing kids and children in the dead of night' (subtle distinction that; kids AND children), acting like'Ghengis Kahn (with the appropriate pretentous pronunciation of course) and will regale us with all those memories he has of Christmas 1968, Cambodia, and Nixon SEARED into his memory.