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Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry

Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry

Iran likely to reject a visit by US Sen. John Kerry

WASHINGTON - A quiet bid by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry to visit Iran is on the verge of being publicly rebuffed by the Iranian Parliament in yet another blow to the Obama administration’s policy of trying to reach out diplomatically to Iran.

Farah Stockman | The Boston Globe | Published: 01/05/2010 04:25

Over the weekend, Kazzem Jalali, an official of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Iranian reporters that Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had asked to meet with members of Parliament, but that the request was not likely to be approved.

“Iran-US relations are not under such conditions that could produce results through a number of nontargeted meetings and talks,’’ Jalali said, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.

The agency said that a parliamentary subcommittee voiced opposition to the request, but that a final decision on Kerry’s visit would be made this afternoon. Kerry, who had hip replacement surgery yesterday, could not be reached for comment.

Kerry has kept silent about the matter since a blog by Foreign Policy magazine reported two weeks ago that he was weighing the possibility of a trip. His spokesman, Frederick Jones, said yesterday that “Kerry has no plans to travel to Iran and we never discuss the Senator’s diplomatic correspondence.’’

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