| Thought it was MEMRI, didn't you ... |
The British newspaper quotes former US under secretary of state Thomas Pickering as saying that a group of former US diplomats and foreign policy experts had been meeting with Iranian academics and policy advisers "in a lot of different places, although not in the US or Iran" for the past five years.
"Some of the Iranians were connected to official institutions inside Iran," Pickering told the paper.
The Independent reported that the contact group was put together by the UN Association of the USA and facilitated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank chaired by former chief UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus. "We discussed what's going on domestically in both countries and wide-ranging issues," The Independent quoted Pickering as saying.
He added that although none of the group members was from the US or Iranian governments, "each side kept their officials informed," according to the British paper.
| "Lies! All lies!" sez the U.S. |