Five former U.S. state secretaries urge Iran talks

Five former U.S. secretaries of state said on Monday the next American administration should talk to Iran, a foe President George W. Bush has generally shunned as part of an "axis of evil."

Engaging Iran is important because Washington's military options against Tehran are unsatisfactory, said the diplomats, who worked for Republican and Democratic administrations.

The five -- Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, James Baker and Henry Kissinger -- all said they favored talking to Iran as part of a strategy to stop Tehran's development of a nuclear weapons program.

Dealing with Iran has become an issue in the November U.S. presidential election campaign, with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain sparring over Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other U.S. adversaries if elected president.

McCain has criticized Obama's stand, saying it shows naivete and inexperience.

The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980, a year after an Islamic revolution toppled U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and months after militant students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held its staff hostage.

Iran has been on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism for years. Bush has been calling Iran a part of an axis of evil since 2002, and has refused to rule out using military force to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear bombs. Washington also accuses Iran of arming, financing and training Shi'ite militants killing U.S. forces in Iraq.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and blames the U.S. occupation for the violence in Iraq.

In July, the Bush administration shifted tactics and sent an envoy to multilateral nuclear talks with Iran for the first time, seeking to underline Washington's stated position that it wants a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

Baker, who worked for former President George H.W. Bush -- the current president's father -- said talking to the Iranians might be one way to get the message across that the United States could always aim its strategic nuclear arsenal at Iran if Iran developed nuclear weapons and aimed them at the United States or Israel.

"They would understand that, I think," Baker said.