{"id":55276,"date":"2015-03-16T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=55276"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:59","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:59","slug":"iran-offers-to-mediate-talks-between-republicans-and-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/iran-offers-to-mediate-talks-between-republicans-and-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Offers to Mediate Talks between Republicans and Obama"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Credit<\/a>

Ali Khamenei. ALIREZA SOTAKBAR\/AFP\/Getty<\/p><\/div>\n

Stating that \u201ctheir continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,\u201d Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, made the offer one day after Iran received what he called a \u201cworrisome letter\u201d from Republican leaders, which suggested to him that \u201cthe relationship between Republicans and Obama has deteriorated dangerously.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTensions between these two historic enemies have been high in recent years, but we believe they are now at a boiling point,\u201d Khamenei said. \u201cAs a result, Iran feels it must offer itself as a peacemaker.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that his nation was the \u201clogical choice\u201d to jumpstart negotiations between Obama and the Republicans because \u201cit has become clear that both sides currently talk more to Iran than to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

He invited Obama and the Republicans to meet in Tehran to hash out their differences and called on world powers to force the two bitter foes to the bargaining table, adding, \u201cIt is time to stop the madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours after Iran made its offer, President Obama said that he was willing to meet with his congressional adversaries under the auspices of Tehran, but questioned whether \u201cany deal reached with Republicans is worth the paper it\u2019s written on.\u201d<\/p>\n

For their part, the Republicans said they would only agree to talks if there were no preconditions, such as recognizing President Obama\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

Andy Borowitz is a <\/em>New York Times best-selling author and a comedian who has written for <\/em>The New Yorker since 1998. He writes the Borowitz Report<\/a> for newyorker.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 newyorker.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stating that \u201ctheir continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,\u201d Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-for-thought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}