From American Progress:
IRAN -- TOP IRANIAN LEADERS CALLED FOR TALKS WITH U.S IN 2003 MEMO:
The Washington Post reports today that a 2003 memo sent to U.S. officials via the Swiss ambassador confirms that "an Iranian proposal for comprehensive talks with the United States had been reviewed and approved by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; then-President Mohammad Khatami; and then-Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi."
The memo, provided by an unnamed source, included a "roadmap" that proposed "putting on the table" long-time demands of the Bush administration, including "such issues as an end to Iran's support for anti-Israeli militants, action against terrorist groups on Iranian soil and acceptance of Israel's right to exist."
According to the Post, their source disclosed the memo in response to feelings that former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage had "mischaracterized" the memo's contents. According to Newsweek, Armitage said: "We couldn't determine what [in the proposal] was the Iranians' and what was the Swiss ambassador's," adding that he felt the Iranians "were trying to put too much on the table." In addition, a spokesman from the State Department called the document "a creative exercise on the part of the Swiss ambassador."
Despite such doubts, Hillary Mann, the administration's former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs compared the memo's significance to the "'two-page document' that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger received from Beijing in 1971, indicating Mao Zedong's interest in opening China."
In response to questions about this missed opportunity, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied ever seeing such a proposal.
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