John Kerry and Iran

Bush-watchers are arguing whether the White House’s renegade neoconservative PNAC pack has next targeted Syria, North Korea or Iran for regime change in 2005. - Ted Rall

The spokesman for foreign ministry, Hamid Reza Asefi, said there will be no breakthrough in Iran-U.S. ties so long as Washington sticks to its policies toward Tehran. There will be no possibility of creating new atmosphere in ties as long as this wall of mistrust built by the U.S. exists, he said. If the U.S. changes policies, a new atmosphere will definitely be created, he noted. - Mehr News Agency

Senator John Kerry attacked President Bush yesterday for an “arrogant, inept, reckless” foreign policy and laid out a detailed plan for prosecuting the war on terrorism far differently while “building bridges to the Islamic world.” Mr. Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts and a presidential candidate, called for a harder line toward Saudi Arabia and a softer approach to Iran…Setting out his own approach to the Middle East, Mr. Kerry said yesterday he would find common ground with Iran by fighting the flow of drugs from Afghanistan and by exchanging anti-Iranian terrorists operating out of Iraq for members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban now in Iran. - David M. Halbfinger

Iran also presents an obvious and especially difficult challenge. Our relations there are burdened by a generation of distrust, by the threat of nuclear proliferation and by reports of al Qaeda forces in that country, including the leadership responsible for the May 13th bombings in Saudi Arabia. But the Bush administration stubbornly refuses to conduct a realistic, non-confrontational policy with Iran, even where it may be possible, as we witnessed most recently in the British-French-German initiative. As president, I will be prepared early on to explore areas of mutual interest with Iran, just as I was prepared to normalize relations with Vietnam a decade ago. - John Kerry

Iran’s Mehr News Agency reports it has received an e-mail from the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry pitching the candidate as one who will “repair the damage done” to international relations by President Bush. - World Net Daily

The unfolding political crisis in Iran is intimately linked to the goings-on in Washington. The perception that Bush may be a one-term president is what has emboldened the conservatives in Teheran to make a move on the reformists. - Jonathan Ariel

And if I were Tim Russert, I would have asked another question. What’s going on with Iran—the number one or two state in the financing of terror, depending on whom you believe, which allegedly is taking an interest in the American presidential campaign? (These days I learn more from Allahpundit, where I found this link, than I ever do from Meet the Press.) According to this article, the Iranian Mullahs would love to see Bush lose so they can really stick it to the reformers in their country once and for all. Russert should have asked Bush about he plans to do about that. And while he’s at it he should ask John Kerry where he stands on the same question, since it has been reported Kerry is sending signals of his own to the Iranians. - Roger L. Simon

We have read how you refer to the theocratic regime in Iran as a “democracy;” we have heard how, if elected, as the president of the United States you intend to “engage” this barbaric regime; this very terrorist regime that your own State Department lists as the most active “State Sponsor of Terrorism.” Why is it, Senator, in all your statements, you don’t, even once, mention the oppressed and suffering masses of Iran? Obviously, as long as there is such preoccupation with appeasing the regime the people of Iran don’t even enter your equation! - Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran

Let’s just be blunt: The North Koreans would love to see John Kerry win the election. The mullahs of Iran would love it. The Syrian Ba’athists would sigh with relief. Every enemy of America would take great satisfaction if the electorate rejects the Bush doctrine and scuttles back to hide under the U.N. Security Council’s table. It’s a hard question, but the right one: Which candidate does our enemy want to lose? George W. Bush. - James Lileks

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Or as I've put it, who would Osama vote for?

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John Kerry and Iran

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