U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and his team are planning to create a new position to coordinate outreach to Iran and is considering a number of senior career diplomats, the Washington Times reported Friday.
The idea of naming a senior Iranian outreach coordinator was broached earlier this month in a meeting with Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, Obama's choice for secretary of state, and her transition team, a State Department official said.
"The idea is the position should build on the existing diplomatic framework," the unidentified official was quoted as saying.
Several Iran specialists said such a position was in the works.
"There is every indication that they are seriously considering going this way," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a group that has warned of the dangers of Iranian proliferation.
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, an organization that supports U.S.-Iran dialogue, said that a special envoy position for Iran is planned.
For now, spokesmen for Obama's team have declined to comment on the reports.
Obama promised during his presidential campaign to seek dialogue with Iran without preconditions in an effort to persuade Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush has refused to negotiate with Iran unless Tehran first suspends its uranium enrichment program.
In July, however, Undersecretary of State William Burns attended a meeting in Geneva with an Iranian nuclear negotiator and senior diplomats from the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, France, China and Russia -- plus Germany.
The "P-5 plus 1" has sent envoys to Tehran and drafted three UN Security Council resolutions that have sanctioned organizations and individuals affiliated with the Iranian nuclear program.
The United States accuses Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civil nuclear program, a charge firmly denied by Tehran, which insists that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.
Source: Xinhua
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