This might be of interest:
Right up to when she joined Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council a few weeks following 9/11, Hillary Mann had conducted secret negotiations with an Iranian diplomat at the U.N. This diplomat had signaled Tehran's willingness to "cooperate unconditionally" with America's impending retaliation against Iran's neighbor to the east, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, whom the Iranians despised almost as much as their immediate neighbor to the west, Saddam Hussein.
Mann saw it as an offer that "could have changed the world."
Flynt Leverett, sitting high up in the State Department at the time, saw similar offers coming across his desk from longtime enemies Syria, Libya and Sudan.
Were these rogue regimes looking to advance American interests?
Are you kidding?
But, just like Iran, these states were hoping to take advantage of the suddenly changed strategic circumstances to come in from the cold and rehabilitate their relations with an angry America, something only Libya later achieved by surrendering its nuke program.
With a Bush administration looking to shake up the Middle East's calcified dictatorships by applying a "big bang" to the region, Iran's offer of unconditional cooperation could have been put to magnificent use in Afghanistan and Iraq - not to mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But the White House decided to pass on Iran's offer, confirming that regime's worst suspicions. Tehran subsequently - and quite rationally - accelerated its pursuit of the bomb as protection from anticipated U.S. invasion.
Found here:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/oct/28/doing -it-the-hard-way-with-iran/
As always, things are rarely as they seem.