|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
U.S. Seeks More 'Cultural Exchange' With Iran NewsMax.com Wires WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration wants to open cultural exchanges with archrival Iran this fall despite tensions between Washington and Tehran about its nuclear program. The administration has asked Congress for $5 million to fund visits by roughly 200 young Iranian professionals and foreign language teachers, and hopes the request can be approved before adjournment a few weeks from now. A State Department official disclosed details of the proposal Tuesday, speaking anonymously because she was not authorized to comment for the record. In the absence of official relations with Iran, the administration has been pursuing the proposal through non-governmental organizations in Iran and U.S. embassies in the Persian Gulf region, the official said. There have been no cultural exchanges with Iran for several years, reflecting the continuing hostility between the two countries. Discussing the new approach Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "We encourage private contact between the Iranian nation and the American people. Those contacts, we believe, are healthy." He said the administration hopes former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, who is on a private visit to the United States, will deliver that message when he returns home. Story Continues Below
Khatami is taking part in a United Nations conference Tuesday and Wednesday. He also will travel to Washington, Charlottesville, Chicago and Boston. His U.S. trip coincides with a Bush administration effort to rally international support for sanctions against Iran for its failure to meet a U.N. deadline for suspending uranium enrichment. President Bush said Tuesday a nuclear-armed Iran would blackmail the free world and raise a mortal threat to the American people. McCormack emphasized that Khatami is visiting the United States at the invitation of private U.S. organizations, not the U.S. government. "We have no change in official U.S. government policy with regard to government-to-government contacts between the government of the United States and the government of Iran," he said. U.S. relations with Iran were poor during Khatami's eight years as president, from 1997 to 2005. He was elected as a reformer, raising hopes here for a new era in U.S.-Iranian relations. But decisions on national security issues in Iran were made - and continue to be made - by a council of mullahs deeply hostile to the United States. But U.S. cultural exchanges with Iran were common early in Khatami's presidency, during the Clinton era. At the time, the United States supported academic and athletic exchanges with Iran while Iran opened its doors to American wrestlers, scholars, graduate students and museum officers.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2012 NewsMax.Com |