Page "People's Mujahedin of Iran" Paragraph 9

The same year that the French police raided the MEK's properties in France ( 2003 ), Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington.

Iranian officials offered to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah, and to give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the MEK, which was revealed by Newsnight, a BBC current affairs program, in 2007.

The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer The proposition was done in a secret letter to Washington via Switzerland.

According to the BBC, the U. S. State Department received the letter from the highest levels of the Iranian government.

According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of Secretary of State Colin Powell, interviewed by the BBC, the State Department initially considered the offer, but it was ultimately rejected by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.