BBC: Cheney Rejected Iran Concessions in 2003

Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.

Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.

Observers say the Iranian offer as outlined nearly four years ago corresponds pretty closely to what Washington is demanding from Tehran now.

Syria in the past has also offered concessions to the United States. Here is an interview with Syrian President Bashar Assad in which he sounds damned reasonable. The interview is titled "America Must Listen". America at this moment in history, unfortunately, only listens to the neo-conservatives, who have been wrong time and time again, and whose policies have led us to disaster.