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U.S. seeks to end run the mullahs with unofficial contacts

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, April 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — The State Department is researching options to bypass the Teheran government in an effort to form links to Iranians.

"While we are opposed to the Iranian regime, we ought to be open to increased contacts with the Iranian people," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.

The administration has asked Congress for $100 million to engage with Iran. The request for fiscal 2008 included $20 million for the Persian service of Voice of America, $8.1 million for Radio Farda, as well as $5.5 million for consular affairs. Another $75 million would be allocated to civil society and human rights projects in Iran.

Over the last year, officials said, the State Department, in a $66 million program, has expanded its Persian-language television, radio and Internet presence to communicate with Iranians. They also cited citizen exchange programs that enabled Iranian students and professionals to become familiar with American people and society.

On March 29, Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. program was meant to compensate for a lack of formal diplomatic relations with Teheran. He cited the lack of U.S. businesses or journalists in Iran.

"We've all seen the huge, long-term impact of having someone study in our country and get to know the American people and what that means in 30, 40 years when that person is in a position of some influence in their society," Burns said.

Officials said the department would seek to engage intellectuals, parliamentarians and other Iranians not directly linked with the Teheran regime. They said the effort has been urged by both the Bush administration and Congress.

[On Tuesday, ABC News reported that Iran has more than tripled its ability to produce enriched uranium since January 2007. The U.S. television network said Iran has installed about 1,000 gas centrifuges as part of its uranium enrichment program.]

Burns said State has also increased monitoring of Iran. Over the past two years, the department expanded its Iran desk from one to eight people and established an Iran monitoring office staffed with Persian speakers in the United Arab Emirates port of Dubai.

In his testimony, Burns compared the Dubai office to the U.S. outpost in Riga, Latvia. U.S. diplomats used Latvia to study the neighboring Soviet Union before Washington opened its embassy in Moscow in 1933.

"I think there is certainly evidence that as Americans who have been innovative have attempted to get to know the Iranians better and have been going into the country and so forth, there have been productive results," Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. "It is critically important that we get to know Iran better."

Meanwhile, the United States has reported the disappearance of a former federal law enforcement agent in Iran.

The FBI said the former agent, who also worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency, traveled to Iran in early 2007 on private business and has not been heard from in nearly a month. Officials said Robert Levinson retired a decade ago and was no longer working for the U.S. government.

"At this time, there are no indications that this matter should be viewed other than as a missing person case," FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said.

The report raised the prospect that Iran might be holding the American. On March 23, Teheran captured 15 British sailors in the Shatt Al Arab waterway that divides Iraq and Iran.

The search for Levinson came amid an alert by the U.S. Navy of an Iranian attack in the Gulf. Officials said the navy raised its alert level in wake of the Iranian capture of the British sailors.

"We need to be mindful of not just protecting our units but ensure that our people are protected when they are off their ship and then, we have procedures in place to ensure that something like that doesn't occur to American sailors," U.S. Navy operations chief Adm. Michael Mullen said on Tuesday. "I am confident that we got those in place but I am mindful, watching what occurred, that we need to be very vigilant with respect to that."

The FBI has provided details of the missing American. Kolko said the 59-year-old Levinson, whose 28-year career in the FBI and DEA focused on organized crime, was last seen in southern Iran on March 11.

On Tuesday, officials said Levinson, of Coral Springs, Fla., was believed to have been working on a film on Kish island, which Iran has sought to promote as a tourist and free trade zone. They said Levinson arrived in Iran from the United Arab Emirates.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States has not linked the missing man to the Iranian detention of the 15 British sailors. Since March 12, McCormack said, the United States, through Switzerland, has sought information from Iran regarding the American.

Teheran has not provided information on Levinson, McCormack. Teheran has blamed the United States for the disappearance of several Iranian officials and commanders.

"I do know that they have gotten back to us and said they don't know his welfare and whereabouts," McCormack said.


Copyright © 2007 East West Services, Inc.

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