A senior US lawmaker who accompanied a controversial trip to Syria last week suggested he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be willing to visit another US foe, Iran.
Representative Tom Lantos, who accompanied Pelosi to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against strong White House objections last week, said he would go to Tehran and thought the speaker might also be willing to make a trip.
"Speaking just for myself, I'm ready to go," Lantos told reporters here late Tuesday. "And knowing the speaker, I think she might be."
"Because however objectionable, unfair and inaccurate many of (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's) statements are, it is important that we have a dialogue with him," Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, said.
Pelosi, also at the press conference, did not contradict Lantos, but she slammed Ahmadinejad's previous denial of the Holocaust as "so repulsive that they are outside the circle of civilized human behavior."
She also noted that Lantos, the chairman of the important House Foreign Affairs Committee, had called for dialogue with the Islamic republic.
"I think that speaks volumes about the importance of dialogue," she said.
She praised the lawmaker for having brought "great experience, knowledge and judgment" to their trip to Syria, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Saudi Arabia.
The trip stirred controversy, with President George W. Bush and other administration officials lashing out at Pelosi for undermining the government's tough line against the Syrian regime, which the United States accuses of supporting terrorism.
A trip to Iran would likely draw similar attacks, as Washington has steadfastly resisted bilateral talks with Tehran, with which it severed official relations in 1980.
Lantos said he has been seeking a visa to Iran for more than a decade.
A senior US lawmaker who accompanied a controversial trip to Syria last week suggested he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be willing to visit another US foe, Iran.