"Since the birth of the Islamic Republic 30 years ago," "Iran has been at daggers drawn with the West." "In the last decade, as the West has put more troops on Iran's borders, the conflict has grown ever more dangerous." "In a luxury London hotel, a senior Iranian made a surprising offer to one of the West's principle negotiators with Iran." "The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear programme." "Iran had never before admitted responsibility for coalition deaths in Iraq." "And when the senior Iranian said it, no other witnesses were present." "This is the story of how the West struggles to handle its most intractable adversary." "The Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan." "What happened here in 2001 created a rare opportunity for Iran and the West to come together." "Iran's enemies, the Taliban, controlled almost all of Afghanistan except this valley, which was held by Iran's ally, the Northern Alliance." "Its commander, Ahmad Shah Massoud, was the only Afghan the Taliban could not conquer." "But now they had him trapped." "Two North Africans with Belgian passports and a letter of introduction from an Islamic group in London persuaded Massoud to give them an interview." "They began with some unexpected questions." ""Why are you against Osama bin Laden?" ""Why do you call him a killer?"" "Each exploded a bomb, one in the camera, and the other in a suicide belt." "Massoud was dead." "Iranian intelligence judged that only Al-Qaeda could have pulled off this complex hit." "One obvious motive was to help their hosts, the Taliban." "But it smelt of an international plot." "Massoud's other ally also smelled a rat." "The next day was 11 of September, 2001." "For the 20 years since the Islamic Revolution," "Iranians had chanted "death to America."" "The authorities ordered that stopped." "Instead, Iran mourned the victims of 9/11." "President Mohammad Khatami led the most moderate government since Iran became an Islamic state." "He had sought reconciliation with America, but his political opponents stopped him." "With America poised to attack the Taliban, he had a chance to win the argument in the cabinet." "They decided to talk to the Americans." "The only place where US and Iranian officials met was the UN." "A member of Iran's delegation brought a message for the US government." "He said that Iran was prepared to work unconditionally with the United States in the war on terror." "That if they could work with us on this issue, it had the potential to fundamentally transform US Iranian relations." "In 1979, Iran had taken American diplomats hostage." "The USA and Iran had had no diplomatic relations since." "Now, Iranian and US diplomats started meeting secretly, in a body called the Six Plus Two Group." "These meetings took place in New York and also in Geneva." "The Iranians were willing to do whatever was necessary to help to ensure that the US military campaign could succeed." "For almost a month, the US bombed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda heartlands south and east of Kabul." "EXPLOSIONS" "This war could not be won from the air alone." "But Iran's allies, the Northern Alliance, were still bottled up in the Panjshir Valley." "What they needed was the US to bomb the Taliban where they were blocking the road to Kabul." "Iran decided it was time to share crucial intelligence with America." "They used the Six Plus Two Group." "He pounded the table and said, "I've had enough of this." ""This is just nice talk, but we're not going to get anywhere" ""if this bombing campaign doesn't succeed."" "And then, he took out a map and he unfurled the map on the table and started to point to targets that the US needed to focus on, particularly in the north." "We took the map to CENTCOM, to the US Central Command." "And certainly that did become the US military strategy." "We took a fourth world force, the Northern Alliance, riding horses, walking, living off the land, and we married them up with a first world air force." "And, er, it worked." "The Northern Alliance took Kabul." "Iran's strategy had succeeded." "Next, Iran helped America create a new government for Afghanistan." "But America still had Iran on its list of state sponsors of terror." "The State Department proposed to open the way to dialogue." "We couldn't get support from the NSC, from the Pentagon, from the Vice-President's office." "And in every case we ran up against this belief in regime change." "Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom." "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil." "Nine months later, the US and Britain proposed a UN resolution that could authorise war against Iraq." "The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, toured the Middle East to seek support." "Iran was a big cheese in the region." "And it was important for me to see the Iranians, to get them on board for what we were seeking to do with Saddam, which was to get rid of him." "We cannot ignore the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to this region, to countries like Iran and Kuwait, to the Iraqi people themselves, and to the security of the region and the world." "Saddam had invaded Iran 20 years earlier." "Iran had lost hundreds of thousands of young men." "President Khatami now made an unexpected offer." "Iran would provide" "America with intelligence and advice to help get rid of Saddam Hussein." "He said there had been an international arrangement in respect of Afghanistan, in which they had participated, and no-one much noticed this but it had worked pretty well." "I said, you know, this..." "Because it wasn't directly in my gift, so I was cautious in response." "I could see the point he was making." "Straw knew that Iran and Iraq, both Shia majority states, are closely intertwined." "No state was better placed to provide the UK and the US with intelligence in Iraq." "But would President Bush accept help from one of his axes of evil?" "That was the 64,000 dollar question." "The crucial thing was to try it on Colin Powell." "I called him." "But the State Department had a problem - the White House." "Secretary Powell and I wanted to push the possibility as far as the traffic would bear, but we realised there were some real practical limitations the President was going to put on this." "Colin was sympathetic, but he came back to me and said that he didn't think it was a runner." "So, as the American-led coalition crushed Saddam Hussein, Iran watched from the sidelines." "Iran now faced American forces of quarter of a million men - on its Afghan border to the east, and in Iraq, to the west." "And a President who believed in pre-emptive war." "CHEERING" "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." "CHEERING" "The next day, an unprecedented proposal to mend Iran's shattered relationship with the West landed on a desk in the State Department." "The Swiss Ambassador, who represented US interests in Iran, had sent a fax." "It starts out about, with his meeting with Sadeq Kharrazi." "And I thought, "Hm, this is a little bit different."" "Sadeq Kharrazi, here on the right with President Khatami, was a key player in Iran." "He was the Foreign Minister's nephew, an in-law of the Supreme Leader, and he'd been meeting the Swiss Ambassador." "The readout says that he's had these talks with Sadeq Kharrazi and Sadeq Kharrazi has developed a road map for the normalisation of US Iranian relations." "The road map suggested direct talks between Iran and America." "Nothing was on the table." "Iran's wish list " "America would refrain from supporting regime change and abolish all sanctions on Iran." "And America's wish list " "Iran would make Hezbollah and Hamas into a peaceful political party and would accept the two-state Palestinian Israeli peace process." "That proposal had a number of elements which were of importance to Iran." "That is, it had the element of mutual respect, which has been lacking in US approach to Iran." "The covering letter said that Kharrazi had two long discussions with the Supreme Leader and that President Khatami and his uncle the Foreign Minister were also present." "All previous contact between the US and Iran had been limited to single issues." "Now it seemed the Supreme Leader had agreed with 85% to 90% of this ambitious paper." "I read it." "I think it's incredibly significant and ground-breaking." "And I write the memo for Secretary Powell, that would be from my boss at the time, Richard Haass." "I thought the paper was interesting, but I was sceptical." "The biggest problem in dealing with Iran at that point was uncertainty about whether the government really spoke for the government, or whether the government really spoke for the power centres of the country." "If the Iranians authorised it to be transmitted to the US as the basis of talks, we should do it." "I don't care whether they contracted out to a great speech writer." "They authorised this transmission and we should call them on it." "Washington said no." "The decision wasn't made by hard-line associates of the President." "It was made at the top of the State Department." "Even in response to a proposal that was basically a genuine attempt to resolve all issues of concern to either side, the United States simply decided to neglect it and put it aside." "America's snub left diplomacy with Iran in European hands." "Britain's Foreign Secretary flew to Tehran." "President Khatami still needed to convince the West that the rest of Iran's leadership supported his moderate policies." "I said to him that it didn't help that when they paraded their Shahab missiles on their national military day in Tehran, that the legend written on these missiles in English was "Death to the Americans"." "Khatami came straight back at me, smiled, and said," ""Yeah, but that's some relief to me," ""cos they used to write, "Death to Khatami."" "It was a very poignant moment, really... er...bringing out in a sense his openness about the way in which he was continually being undermined by the conservative forces in Iran." "Straw then said the West was worried about Iran's investment in nuclear technology." "But Iran's military doesn't answer to the President alone." "The Supreme Leader has the final say." "Iran already had an ambitious programme in ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear warheads." "And Iran was building its first civil nuclear power station." "Earlier in the year, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, had confirmed the existence of this secret facility, proof that Iran was also trying to master the secrets of enriching uranium, technology that can be used to make fuel, or a bomb." "Enrichment was the most difficult part of developing a nuclear weapon." "It was maybe two thirds, three quarters of the challenge." "It wasn't actually producing the bomb, it was producing the highly-enriched uranium that had to go into the bomb." "And so if the Iranians could master enrichment, they would be three quarters of the way to producing a nuclear weapon." "None of the leaders at that summer's G8 summit wanted Iran to become a nuclear power." "But most were worried that the US might use force to stop them." "The international community, er, must come together to make it very clear to Iran that we will not tolerate the construction of a nuclear weapon." "Fundamentally, both the President and the Vice-President felt we were gonna have to overthrow the regime." "Iran under the control of the Islamic revolution was never going to be a rational partner." "And that the ultimate way to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons or supporting international terrorism was to change the regime in Tehran." "The Bush Administration didn't openly threaten to strike Iran, but they did have an agreed phrase for it." "All options are all on the table as the President has said repeatedly." "Senator, I just have to repeat, the President never takes any option off the table and he shouldn't." "The President of the US doesn't take any options off the table." "For our part, the United States is keeping all options on the table." "And as the President has said..." "All options are on the table." "Joschka called me and said, "Look, we mustn't allow the Western allies" ""to be split again in respect of Iran."" "He said, "Why don't you and I get a deal from the Iranians" ""where in return for lifting of sanctions," ""we get copper-bottomed guarantees, internationally verified," ""that they're not pursuing a nuclear weapons programme?"" "And I said I thought this was a very good idea." "I talked to the Prime Minister about it and he endorsed it." "And so that's how the E3 process began." "The E3, or EU3, the Foreign Ministers of the UK, France and Germany, had set themselves a difficult task." "We went to Tehran to get them to agree to stop enrichment and everything to do with enrichment." "They should stop it for ever." "So we wanted to get them into that by getting them to agree to a suspension, to a halt." "My working assumption was that they would not have agreed to the meeting unless they had something to give us." "Why would they?" "Dr Hassan Rohani, who led the Iranian delegation, was the national security adviser to the Supreme Leader." "When the meeting began, he played his strongest card " "Iran's right to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the NPT." "The Europeans replied that Iran had violated its treaty obligations, and should suspend its enrichment programme." "Iran had smuggled centrifuges to enrich uranium, and then hid them from international inspectors." "We are talking about... a lack of trust." "And you are responsible for that." "Rohani said that they would agree to not putting radioactive material into the centrifuges." "Which would mean that Iran was not enriching and so that would mean suspension of enrichment." "The problem with Iran's definition of suspension was that it would allow them to build more centrifuges - and master the skills needed to run them." "We didn't want to allow a situation where all this equipment was kind of primed and ready to go, but all they had agreed to do was not to press the button." "So that was the argument, and it was a big argument." "For two hours, the Iranians stood firm." "Then Rohani gambled that the Europeans would not want to go home empty-handed, and would settle for Iran's narrow definition of suspension." "Rohani looked at his watch and said," ""It's time for us to go and report to the President."" "And then something extraordinary happened - quite unscripted." "Joschka banged the table and said, "There's no point us going to see" ""the President or talking to the press." "We've not agreed anything."" "We would be fools." "I mean, to sit there in a press conference, be polite." "And nobody had an interest, I mean, to create bad feelings with our hosts." "And Rohani said, "This is as much as we can agree to."" "Joschka said, "In that case we might as well go catch our planes."" "You could see these guys thinking, "God, that wasn't in our script."" "There was almost a total failure and break-out." "We decided, both sides, I think, decided, to call a break and discuss it." "The Iranian negotiator needed instructions from the Supreme Leader and the President." "And Rohani got out his mobile." "He was speaking quietly but it was clearly an intense conversation he was having." "It was quite extraordinary." "We were sort of hanging around!" "Rohani's consultations with the President Khatami lasted over an hour." "They knew that if the Europeans went home now, President Bush might act." "When Iran agreed that the International Atomic Energy Agency could set the terms of suspension, it seemed that they had caved in to Europe's demand." "Now the Europeans were happy to meet the President." "We were not bad in poker game too, in the diplomatic poker game." "I mean, the European part." "But the Iranians thought they had the ace up their sleeve." "They had already asked the IAEA director, Mohammed El Baradei, how he would define suspension." "Dr El Baradei had visited the day before and they discussed the meaning of suspension." "Dr Rohani believed that El Baradei had considered suspension to be basically not feeding uranium into the centrifuges." "The IAEA defined suspension as Europe wanted." "And four months later, they reported that Iran had been hiding a new, advanced centrifuge." "Iran had expected agreement with Europe would bring economic rewards." "None came." "Later that year, Iran went to the polls to elect a new parliament." "The clerics and the Supreme Leader disqualified most of the candidates who favoured negotiations with the West." "The new parliament was dominated by hard-liners." "This tough line was reinforced by the Supreme Leader's new appointment to the National Security Council, Ali Larijani." "Iran's negotiators needed to show they could win concrete rewards." "So, one of them approached the IAEA director to help get trade concessions from Europe to impress the voters." "The next round of elections in Iran was imminent." "A lot of candidates from the election will benefit from us losing this negotiation." "Yes, I know that, I know that." "They will not see favourably..." "No." "..a success in these talks." "And...and...they are rather influential people." "Both the Europeans as well as the negotiators have lost credibility in Iran." "It's not a problem of confidence on their side, it's a problem of confidence on our side as well." "Confidence in our own... ..er, sort of credibility at home." "At the 2004 UN General Assembly, Jack Straw set up a meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, to see if there was any way forward." "But Straw was late for the meeting - there was a crisis." "A British civilian, Ken Bigley, had been taken hostage in Iraq." "Jack is having to phone the family of the hostage we have in Iraq." "And it's obviously... extremely difficult for us, it's a huge issue." "We have the same problem." "Two years earlier, the West had spurned Iran's offer of help to deal with Iraq." "Now Kharrazi couldn't resist pointing out how much that refusal was costing." "I mean, it's obviously..." "A very dangerous environment." "Yeah, sure." "It was more safe when Saddam Hussein was in power." "For whom was it more safe?" "LAUGHTER" "Was it more safe for the hundreds of thousands of people he killed?" "No, even for British citizens." "Iraqis weren't safe under Saddam Hussein, Iranians weren't safe under Saddam Hussein." "How many Iranians were killed by Saddam Hussein?" "Many." "Yeah." "Hm." "Hm." "So, how are you?" "I'm OK." "Difficult times." "How are you?" "Fine." "A few minutes later Straw showed up and broke the tension." "But the two sides were no closer to breaking the impasse over Iran's nuclear enrichment." "The Iranians wanted trade embargos lifted." "Europe couldn't deliver." "Long-standing American sanctions punished anyone who traded with Iran." "Jack Straw decided to ask Colin Powell to let Europe offer some incentives, some carrots, to Iran." "He raised it at the annual dinner of G8 Foreign Ministers." "I had a very close relationship with Colin Powell." "I talked to him and said, "We've got to give something to them and let us see." ""It's in our interest to try and give something to the Khatami regime."" "Colin Powell agreed, and said he thought it would be very useful for the political directors to meet, and he invited us all to Washington a couple of weeks later to do that." "The Europeans now worked out the detail of exactly what could be offered to Iran." "Three weeks later they brought their proposal to Washington." "The administration's most outspoken hard-liner had been lobbying against the new policy." "I was stunned that Powell had deviated from our policy by saying, "Let's offer the Iranians even more carrots" ""than the EU3 had been offering."" "But the Europeans were met by Powell's loyal deputy," "Richard Armitage." "The reason I even met with them was because they had to realise that there were some sensible people on the seventh floor." "You could see the evident dissatisfaction on John Sawer's face, because I was still there." "And I leant over and said, "Let me know if I can help in terms of," ""you know, achieving a common outcome to this."" "And I just got a sort of frosty glare." "In the face of Bolton's hostility," "Sawers presented the new plan on behalf of the Europeans." "Our proposal included spare parts for their aircraft, possible sale of new aircraft, the capacity for international nuclear companies to co-operate with the Iranians on civil nuclear power." "Bolton said, "Right, has everybody else spoken?" "OK?"" "And he got out a sheet of paper and said, "This is the US position."" "We expected Iran to suspend all of its uranium enrichment activities and come into full compliance with its safeguards obligations." "And not until that happened would we consider any, er, anything." "Why had we travelled across the Atlantic and wasted two days of our time to go to Washington just to go to a meeting which was undermined by the hosts and the people who were organising it?" "Well, a lot of parts of US policy-making doesn't make sense from the outside, but John Bolton was placed in the Department by the Vice-President of the United States, who had great faith in his ability." "Unfortunately, when he's not on your side, and it's very difficult to fire him, you couldn't have a worse enemy." "Soon afterwards, Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy Richard Armitage announced their resignations." "The next talks between the EU3 and Iran were scheduled in Paris." "Neither side had much to offer, but neither was willing to accept failure." "So the Iranians agreed to a complete suspension for three months while the Europeans would try to find ways to increase trade." "We put it in the Paris agreement that suspension is essential as long as negotiations proceed." "And we used the word "proceed"" "to show that it's not simply negotiations should go on, but in fact they should go forward." "The deal was signed." "I was on a busy commuter train to Oxfordshire on the Friday, looking forward to a bit of a rest, cos it had been a very busy period." "And I get this call on the train and it's Kharazzi, he wants to talk to me." "The Iranian Foreign Minister wanted to discuss the agreement just reached in Paris." "There's no way I could take the call, as it were, with the audience of some scores of commuters." "So I say, "Hang on." And I go to the lavatory and then find out what he wants, and what he wanted was essentially to amend this deal." "The Iranians had just signed the agreement to turn off and seal every single centrifuge they owned." "Now, their Foreign Minister asked for an exemption, for research." "He said, "Well, you know, we did say none but actually we mean 20."" "I said I'd have to call him back because by this stage, trying to negotiate on something as important as this from a train lavatory and with commuters wanting... somebody was at the door wanting to make use of the loo." "Jack phoned me to tell me what Kharrazi had said to him, and I said I thought that sounded extremely dangerous." "I got together a couple of elderly gents who'd been involved back in the time when we were developing enrichment, back in the 1950s and '60s." "They said, "Oh, I remember how we did this." ""We had 16 centrifuges that we ran continuously for two years," ""and after two years of running 16 centrifuges" ""we'd mastered enrichment."" "So if the Iranians want to keep 20 centrifuges, they probably want to do the same thing." "All right, thank you." "Bye." "Great." "He said Minister Straw, Secretary Straw, may be interested." "In the end, Straw phoned Foreign Minister Kharrazi." "I said, "Look, a deal's a deal, you know." ""You guys are really difficult, come impossible, to negotiate with." ""When you sign a deal, it is a deal."" "Iran dropped the request to keep 20 centrifuges, finally implementing the full suspension the West had been asking for." "IAEA cameras monitored it." "But the relationship between Iran and the West was about to take a new turn." "President Khatami's term in office was up." "Iran's voters elected a new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - the pop star of Iranian politics." "And America had a new Secretary of State." "As National Security Advisor," "Condoleezza Rice had not concentrated on Iran." "Now she put it at the top of her agenda." "I met Secretary Rice at the airport and we had a long talk on the ride into Brussels." "She said that Iran was beginning to increase its assistance both to Shia militants in Iraq, er, to the Hezbollah, to the Palestinians, Islamic Jihad, so Iran had become the largest funder and supplier of arms" "to most of the Middle East groups that were shooting at us or shooting at the Israelis or the moderate Palestinians." "And secondly, Iran was continuing its nuclear research." "Rice made Burns her deputy and asked him to take on the Iran brief." "She wanted to know if the State Department was up to the job." "I went back to Condi and reported that," ""Condi, we have half a person in the entire Department of State" ""devoted to one of the most significant countries in the world."" "And she was appalled." "Within days, Rice would receive a report from Iraq that would strengthen her resolve to deal with Iran." "She had sent a trusted colleague to Iraq to find out what was going wrong." "Shia militias backed by Iran were emerging as the biggest threat to Western success in Iraq." "Rice's advisor was briefed by US and UK intelligence that in the Shia south, more and more coalition soldiers were being killed by a new type of roadside mine." "It could penetrate even armoured vehicles." "It's rare to get a convergence of intelligence from so many different kinds of sources, and from several different agencies that all end up pointing in the same direction." "American and British Intelligence concluded that these mines were factory-made in Iran." "The people who were being killed by these devices were our soldiers in the field, and they were the people who literally had gone to the sites of these explosions and cleaned up the bodies and body parts of their comrades." "From their point of view, one more soldier getting killed is huge." "Secretary Rice's counsellor reported back. "Iraq remains a failed state," ""and an open field for violent Iranian subversion."" "But by now, President Bush wasn't ready to strike at the sponsors of terrorism." "Instead he had the State Department send a secret warning to Iran." "The continuation of this Iranian behaviour would be regarded by us as enemy action." "America's warning was delivered in the autumn of 2005." "Iran's response came via Europe." "There were various Iranians who would, you know, come to London and suggest we had tea in some hotel or other." "They'd do the same in Paris, they'd do the same in Berlin and then we'd compare notes among the three of us." "The Iranians' tea-time initiative was breathtakingly bold." "The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear programme." ""We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there," ""you allow us to carry on with our nuclear programme without hindrance."" "You said, "We can make life easier for you in Iraq" ""if you give Iran's nuclear programme a pass."" "What sort of deal were you offering?" "As you remember, many members of that meeting went public and denied that that statement had ever been made." "You are not denying it, are you?" "No, no, no, what I'm saying is that Iran can and has played an active role and supportive role both in Afghanistan and Iraq." "You are saying here it could play a more active role..." "It's Realpolitik." "It's, er..." "And from the Iranians' point of view, they wanted freedom on the nuclear dossier." "The West ignored the offer of a deal, but Iran had made it clear." "If it were attacked, its allies in Iraq would kill more Americans, British and Iraqis there." "President Ahmadinejad announced that Iran would re-start its nuclear enrichment plant." "A few weeks later, Jack Straw played host to Condoleezza Rice in his constituency." "The confrontation with Iran was pulling the US and the UK apart." "For the first time since the invasion of Iraq, the UK was refusing to endorse American threats." "I was saying, "Hang on, you just need to understand" ""there aren't any circumstances in which this British government," ""or my view any British government," ""could be involved in military action against Iran."" "Secretary of State, what next steps could be taken to persuade the Iranians to pull back from the uranium enrichment programme?" "Jack Straw keeps telling us that that military action will never be used." "First of all, the American President never takes any option off the table." "You don't want the American President to take any option off the table." "My point from a British perspective was that since" "I thought that it...would be completely inappropriate and counterproductive to take military action, and given the background of Iraq, and I think we would have been involved in a political firestorm if I had given a hint" "that military action was a possibility." "I may say Tony Blair took a different view about that." "Within the month, Blair would remove Jack Straw from the Foreign Office." "But he still had one last chance to exploit the special relationship." "At the end of the trip," "Condi and I went to her plane." "Straw stayed on board." "He flew with Rice on an unscheduled trip to Iraq." "On that trip we spent quite a long time in her cabin talking about Iran." "My message to Condi was this." "We Europeans have gone as far as we can by ourselves, and frankly... ..so far as the Iranians are concerned, we Europeans are a sprat to catch a mackerel." "And you're the big fish, the United States." "After changing planes in Kuwait, they arrived in the war zone." "In the previous month, 1,000 Iraqis and 31 Americans had died there." "Sunnas and Shias were killing each other across the length and breadth of the country." "The government of Iraq couldn't come together around the new Prime Minister because Iran was deeply involved." "We wanted to counter the Iranian pressure." "All this was going on at the same time that journalists in the United States were writing we were getting ready for war with Iran." "It was clear to me that she was anxious to find a way through this, and that she would if she could seek to get other principals and the President on board for direct involvement in talks with the Iranians." "Rice was about to attempt her most audacious move as Secretary of State." "It was the Easter holidays." "George and Laura Bush hosted an Easter egg hunt at the White House." "But Condi Rice stayed home." "She asked her staff to give her a series of calendars for April and May and June and July, and she began to sketch out a diplomatic strategy that would get us into negotiations with the Iranians." "She took that, and had breakfast the next morning with President Bush and received the President's permission to go ahead." "The Secretary of State would make an announcement later that day." "Iran's negotiator was given the text." "We are agreed with our European partners on the essential elements of package containing both benefits if Iran makes the right choice and costs if it does not." "As soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and re-processing activities the United States will come to the table with our EU colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives." "For the first time in almost three decades, the US was offering to speak directly with Iran." "Regime change was out." "That policy had failed." "We had tried reg..." "We had advocated regime change." "We had a very threatening posture towards Iran for a number of years." "It didn't produce any movement whatsoever." "The Americans made it possible to offer the Iranians more than any of them had thought conceivable." "From civil nuclear power stations to the biggest prize of all - welcoming the Islamic Republic into the family of nations." "Secretary Rice and I were quite buoyant." "We felt that the Iranians were gonna accept this offer." "The offer was presented to Iran's negotiator by the EU's foreign policy chief." "I tried to be as constructive as possible." "As friendly as possible to him." "As respectful as possible to his country." "They went into a side room with a translator." "I went into some of the details that would prefer not to be said in the full meeting room." "Centrifuges for research were what Jack Straw had turned down two years earlier." "This was a big concession to Iran." "He said, "Whatever proposal you make to me here," ""I will have to discuss it with other people" ""in the structure of power of..." "Tehran."" "And as you know, the structure of power of Tehran is not a simple matter." "President Ahmadinejad was against the proposal." "Larijani was in favour." "But when he came to Brussels six weeks later all he could do was turn on the charm." "It was full of that." "And in Farsi, it's much easier to do that." "In English, it's more difficult." "A month later, they met again." "There now seemed to be enough support in the National Security Council for Larijani to take a half step forward." "Larijani and Solana hatched a plan to open talks in New York during the UN General Assembly." "The New York meeting was to be carefully choreographed." "Iran would temporarily suspend enrichment, and the West would suspend sanctions." "The key was that the two sides would make these concessions at the same time." "Larijani would come to New York, to the Waldorf-Astoria." "He would meet the European Foreign Ministers and the Russians and Chinese Foreign Ministers." "He would accept the basis of negotiations." "And at that point," "Secretary Rice could then enter the room, have dinner with them, sit down across from then and have the very first conversation." "Dr Larijani was very enthusiastic about that meeting with permanent members of the Security Council." "And to do that in New York at the time of the General Assembly was not a minor thing." "New York would give Larijani the chance to win the argument in Iran." "He'd get rid of hated sanctions." "Receiving the public respect of world leaders would show that Iran was no longer a pariah state." "The Americans were ready." "We had formed a negotiating team, we'd done all sorts of research on how best to work with them, we'd thought through the various elements of what we would do, and the pace of the negotiations - we were quite looking forward to it." "We're working toward a diplomatic solution to this crisis." "And as we do, we look to the day when you can live in freedom." "And America and Iran can be good friends and close partners in the cause of peace." "The Iranians were due at the UN on Monday." "On the preceding Friday, the State Department got a message." "Larijani would have minders." "The Iranians sent word to us that they had to have a delegation of nearly 300 people accompany Larijani, none of them had visas." "And Condi said to me," ""Let's take away any excuse they have not to come."" "So I called our Embassy in Berne in Switzerland and I said," ""Could you please stay open throughout the entire weekend?" ""Issue several hundred visas," which they did..." "All the technical questions we had resolved." "The visa were there, the travel arrangement were done." "I have the honour to welcome to the United Nations," "His Excellency, Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." "The Iranian who arrived in New York and who was the centre of attention at the United Nations was not the nuclear negotiator." "The President will have a press conference on Thursday." "It seemed President Ahmadinejad had won the argument in Iran." "Once President Ahmadinejad showed up in New York, it was clear that two were too many." "The plane never took off." "Larijani never took off from Tehran, he never made the trip, those 300 people didn't get on the aeroplane, they never showed up in New York." "And we were in New York, thinking," ""Well, maybe he'll come tomorrow, or the next day, or next week."" "Larijani was replaced by a much more hard-line negotiator, and Iran went ahead with its nuclear programme." "The West imposed more sanctions." "30 years ago, Iran's revolution promised freedom from Western interference." "But the Islamic Republic ended up also rejecting liberalism and secularism, the principles that govern Western society." "The many dead on both sides have reinforced this bitter divide." "It will be difficult for any new leader to shift the weight of history." "We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk"