Iran and America: Put Not Your Trust in Princes

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Did Iran make a peace offer to the United States in 2003? If so, how did the US respond – and why? And in any case, does it matter now?

Most Americans have absorbed from US government sources and from our conventional media two notions ---

• that a wildly hostile Iranian government has rejected all efforts at negotiation toward preventing its acquiring nuclear weapons and has threatened to destroy Israel;

• and that the US is trying hard to prevent the nuclear-weapons option, while hoping to avoid war and to work closely with other countries for a peaceful resolution.

But our religious traditions teach us – Put not your trust in princes.

And this story is put in serious question by reports that in 2003, the Iranian government made a major reconciliation overture to the US government, proposing broad concessions –

including ending its support for terror attacks on Israel, adopting the Arab peace initiative, and providing effective, verifiable assurances against pursuing a nuclear-weapons program, in return for a softening of the US attitude to Iran.

The letter – which allegedly had the support of the conservative theocratic Muslim hierarchy as well the then moderate and reform-oriented elected government -- was sent via the Swiss government, which represents US interests in Iran. The US responded by flatly rejecting the proposal and rebuking the Swiss for passing it on.

Some pieces of information about this Iranian peace proposal have been available in scattered sites for some time. (But I must say that though I try hard to keep alert to dangers of war and possibilities of peace in the Middle East, and though I try to keep healthily skeptical of Bush Administration claims, I was not aware of these reports.)
For bringing the pieces together, and for putting on line what is alleged to be an actual replica of the Iranian proposal, we are indebted to Ami Isseroff of Mideastweb (an Israeli blog with very mildly dovish tendencies).
For its information, see –
http://www.mideastweb.org/iranian_letter_of_2003.htm
This information was originally reported by the Financial Times soon after the Iranians sent their proposal to the US. This past January, it was reported in much fuller detail by a former senior US official who was involved in 2003.
The Financial Times article was written by Guy Dinmore (July 15, 2003). It claimed: