Shortly after Joe Volk, Executive Secretary for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, returned from a week-long visit to Iran as part of a 13-member delegation of U.S. religious leaders, our Quaker lobby organized a series of meetings with members of Congress and their staff to talk about pursuing a diplomatic course in response to the current confrontation between the U.S. and Iranian governments.

In our lobbying this week, we talked about what the religious delegation learned when they traveled to Iran in late February. The leaders from the Mennonite, Quaker, Episcopal, Catholic, and United Methodist churches, as well as the National Council of Churches, Pax Christi, and Sojourners/Call to Renewal, met with the president and other Iranian political and religious leaders in an effort to build a dialogue between Iranians and Americans in the absence of direct government to government dialogue.

The trip to Iran and our meetings with members of Congress emerged out of our growing concern at FCNL about the possibility that the U.S. and Iran could stumble into an “accidental” war. In more than three dozen meetings on Capitol Hill this week we found great concern about the dangers of war and great interest in the possibility that active diplomacy could achieve results. The religious leaders learned that members of Congress had the same desire to prevent war that the delegation found in meetings with Iranian religious leaders and government officials.

The challenge, as always, is to create the political space to allow members of Congress to feel comfortable speaking out against a war and to feel confident that they will not be perceived as “soft” on Iran or insufficiently worried about the danger of a nuclear Iran (which U.S. intelligence indicates is at least five years away). They need to hear from their constituents that direct diplomatic engagement, not military action, is the only way to improve relations between our two countries.

We at FCNL were pleased to hear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s announcement that the U.S. will join diplomatic talks that include Iran and Syria, but the danger of an accidental war remains. Even as Rice was announcing this opening, a second U.S. aircraft carrier was transiting to the region and squadrons of F-18 fighters began “training operations” within striking distance of Iran. Iran has now announced its own air defense exercises.

There is still pressing need for legislation that would require a public debate and congressional authorization before the U.S. takes military action against Iran (Rep. Walter Jones has introduced such a bill, H.J. Res. 14 ).  Our delegation returned from Iran convinced that a peaceful resolution is possible and in the best interest of both countries. Congress can speak out now against the administration’s reliance on military “solutions� and encourage a diplomatic approach to Iran.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Politics, Foreign Policy .