Used with permission by Mennonite Central Committee (www.IranDelegation.org )
Tehran, Iran — In the first meeting of its kind since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a group of Americans met with a sitting Iranian president in Iran Feb. 24.
The meeting took place at the presidential residence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and included a 13-member U.S. religious delegation and members of the president’s staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The group discussed a variety of topics including the role of religion in transforming conflict, Iraq, nuclear proliferation, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meeting lasted for nearly two and a half hours.
What the delegation found most encouraging from the meeting with President Ahmadinejad was a clear declaration from him that Iran has no intention to acquire or use nuclear weapons, as well as a statement that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be solved through political, not military, means. Ahmadinejad also said, “I have no reservation about conducting talks with American officials if we see some goodwill.”
The meeting culminated six days of meetings with Iranian religious and government leaders and informal conversations with Iranians at universities, churches, mosques, in shops and on the street.
The delegation included leaders from the Mennonite, Quaker, Episcopal, Catholic and United Methodist churches as well as representatives of the National Council of Churches, Sojourners/Call to Renewal and Pax Christi.
