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JANUARY 2004 : (DAVOS, SWITZERLAND : WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM : US SENATOR BIDEN MEETS WITH IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER KAMAL KHARRAZI) Jan 24 - Senior US senator Joseph Biden criticized the American government's policies on Iran during a meeting with Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on the fringes of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, foreign ministry said on Saturday. The ranking Democrat on the senate Foreign Relations Committee from Delaware, "stressed the importance of Iran and the role which it can play in the sensitive and volatile region" in the Middle East. Joseph Biden told the Iranian foreign minister that he hoped the existing problems between the Islamic Republic of Iran and America would be removed someday. Kharrazi had a 90-minute meeting with Biden in a rare high-level contact between Tehran and Washington, which have held no official relations since the 1979 Islamic revolution, in full view of reporters in a lounge at the World Economic Forum. Kharrazi, in turn, said "The Iranian nation has suffered gravely from the antagonistic steps of the American government and so long as these wrong policies continue, there will be no ground for dialogue and improving the two countries' relations." The Iranian foreign minister stressed that:"American statesmen are required first to change their existing approach and prove their good will in order to pave the way for dialogue and diplomatic relations according to mutual respect." --------- "US senator slams anti-Iran policies," IRIB News, Tehran, 2004/01/24

MARCH 2004 : (TIME MAGAZINE INTERVIEW : JOHN KERRY SAYS HE PLANS ON SENDING A TEAM TO IRAQ TO DO HIS THINKING FOR HIM - See JOE BIDEN, RAND BEERS AND NANCY STETSON) New York – Senator John Kerry tells TIME that he "almost certainly" will send a team to Iraq "within the next few weeks or months" to help him formulate his Iraq policy positions. "I may ask some Democratic colleagues and experts to go to Iraq and make this assessment so I have a strong basis on which to proceed," he tells TIME's Perry Bacon, Lisa Beyer and Karen Tumulty on his campaign plane from Washington, DC to Florida last week. He mentions Senate colleague Joseph Biden, chief campaign foreign policy adviser Rand Beers and longtime Kerry Senate aide Nancy Stetson. But, says White House communications director Dan Bartlett, Kerry's "mission to finally understand what is happening in Iraq reveals once again that (his) attacks are based on politics, not facts." ---- "JOHN KERRY TELLS TIME HE WILL 'ALMOST CERTAINLY' SEND HIS OWN TEAM TO IRAQ TO ASSESS SITUATION 'WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS OR MONTHS'