2006年VOA标准英语-Key US Senator Backs Direct Talks With Ira

By Paula Wolfson
Washington
16 April 2006

A top Republican in the U.S. Senate says the Bush administration should hold direct talks with Iran on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

 
Senate Foreign Relactions Committee Chairman Senator Richard Lugar
  
Senator Richard Lugar, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says direct talks with Iran could be helpful.

"I think that it would be useful," he said.

During an appearance on the ABC television program This Week, the Indiana Republican also stressed the need for direct U.S. talks with Russia and China about the best way to put pressure on Iran. Both countries are permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have made clear they are reluctant to impose sanctions on Tehran. Lugar suggested it might be best to intensify¹ diplomacy² and put any discussion of sanctions aside for the time being.

"I believe for the moment, that we ought to cool this one too," he added. "The rhetoric³ has been pretty hot and heavy with the president of Iran on TV constantly. It appears to me that they [the diplomats] are not making that much headway and we need to make more headway diplomatically."

The Bush administration has long maintained that the best way to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue is through a multilateral approach. It has supported negotiations⁴ led by three European nations - Britain, France and Germany - and urged action by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Security Council.

One strong congressional supporter of the president's strategy is Senator Mitch McConnell. The Kentucky Republican split with Senator Lugar on the issue, explaining his view on the Fox television network's Fox News Sunday program.

"When the president went into Iraq, they accused him of being too unilateral. And now, he is applying a multilateral approach in Iran and they say it ought to be unilateral in Iran. Nobody seriously thinks there is a unilateral solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis," said McConnell.

But the stand espoused⁵ by Senator Lugar got some strong support on U.S. television from a leading Senate Democrat⁶, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. He also appeared on Fox News Sunday.

"The Iranians have been very interested for us to be very directly involved, with the Europeans or not," he commented. "The point is we almost have no contact at all. They are asking us to sit down and talk about Iraq with them because they are concerned about that. That is an opening."

Meanwhile, two former members of the White House National Security Council have weighed in with their opinion on the use of military force against Iran. In an article written for the New York Times newspaper, Richard Clarke and Steven Simon warned against such action, saying it could be more damaging to U.S. interests than the struggle in Iraq.

President Bush has maintained he wants to resolve the matter diplomatically, though military action is always an option. He told a group of foreign policy students last week that in the case of Iran, multilateral diplomacy remains⁷ the best course, playing down media reports alleging⁸ military planning for a possible attack is under way.

Iran has maintained its nuclear program is purely⁹ civilian¹⁰ in nature and is designed to generate electricity. But the United States and its allies have argued that civilian program is really a cover for the development of nuclear arms.

1 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

2 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

3 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

4 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

5 espoused   

v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They espoused the notion of equal opportunity for all in education. 他们赞同在教育方面人人机会均等的观念。
• The ideas she espoused were incomprehensible to me. 她所支持的意见令我难以理解。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

9 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。