Political Quotes

“Bruce Langden was a hostage in Iran with the takeover of the embassy; and as he has stated many times in the past couple of years, it is time for the two countries to talk. It has now been 20 years since the United States and Iran have had any direct communications with each other. Official exchanges have all been indirect via the Swiss. Its embassy in Tehran today officially represents the American interests there. But these have been very rare and limited amounts of contact. On the face of it, that fact makes little sense, for either country to not talk, given the way the interests of the United States and Iran in that part of the world overlap. We cannot ignore the reality of Iran. Neither can Iran ignore the reality of America's strategic interests and military presence today in the Persian Gulf. We have some obvious shared interests. An improved situation in the Mideast is good for the world and good for us and good for Iran. We obviously also share interests of better control of traffic in narcotics in the region and freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf for everyone. But the absence of dialogue with Iran inevitably impacts even more broadly on our strategic interest throughout the region. More specifically, Mr. Speaker, it complicates our relationship with the Central Asian states that evolved out of the former Soviet Union, with whom Iran has had historic cultural and strategic interests.”