WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice misled the United States Congress when she said last week that she had not seen a 2003 Iranian proposal for talks with the US, a former senior government official said yesterday.
Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council whenit was headed by Rice, likened the proposal to the 1972 US opening to China. He said he was confident it was seen by Rice and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell but "the Administration rejected the overture".
Rice, asked about previous Leverett comments on the plan, told the Foreign Affairs Committee: "I don't know what [he's] talking about."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday: "What she said is she has no recollection of having seen it. She has said that repeatedly". He said the accusation that she had misled Congress was "just absolutely 100 per cent false".
