'Argo' Oscar Spurs Ex-Hostages To Call For Sustained Iran Talks
Bruce Laingen and John Limbert, who were hostages in Iran from 1979-81, say they hope the movie "Argo" will encourage diplomacy with Iran and not just dredge up old grievances.
A day after Argo won the Oscar for best picture, two of the former U.S. hostages in Iran said the film, which deals with the 1979-81 crisis, should spur efforts to resolve differences diplomatically, not just underline mutual grievances.
Appearing on Capitol Hill Monday [Feb. 25] on the eve of new talks in Kazakhstan between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany, Bruce Laingen and John Limbert called for deeper engagement to deal with Iran’s nuclear program and other contentious issues.
“The problem with these contacts is that they are desultory, not sustained,” said Laingen, describing the brief and intermittent meetings Iran and the P5+1 have held since last year in Istanbul, Baghdad, Moscow and now Almaty.
Laingen, who was the senior U.S. diplomat in Iran on Nov. 4, 1979, when students overran the U.S. Embassy to protest U.S. admission of the deposed shah for medical treatment, said he could not have imagined that American representation in Iran would still be lacking three decades later.
