Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) is reporting for duty again and again it is a task for which he is woefully unqualified. The former presidential candidate has suggested becoming the first high-level US emissary to make a public visit to Tehran, Iran since that country's 1979 Islamic revolution. (source) While the Obama administration seems to be in favor of such a trip, the people of Iran who are risking their lives to protest the regime Senator Kerry wants to meet with have a very different opinion.

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Tens of thousands of protesters again took to the streets of the Iranian capital Sunday clashing with government security forces that opened fire with live ammunition against the unarmed demonstrators. Opposition news websites reported that several protesters had been killed, including Ali Mousavi, the adult nephew of opposition figurehead Mir-Hossein Mousavi. (source) A meeting between Senator Kerry and representatives of this murderous, oppressive regime is, according to a White House official "The kind of travel a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee would - and should - undertake." (source)

While it is unclear whether the Iranian government would even allow such a visit by a US government official, it is very clear that the Iranian opposition believes such a meeting would further legitimize President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government just when internal pressure seems to be having an effect on the ruling Mullahs.

According to Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at Washington's Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "We've eschewed high-level visits to Iran for the last 30 years. I think now, when the Iranian regime's fate is less certain than ever, is not the best time to begin"

Hossein Askari, a professor at George Washington University and former adviser to Iranian governments adds, "The wrong message would be sent to the Iranian people by such a high-level visit: The U.S. loves dictatorial regimes."

When the backlash to Senator Kerry's idea of an Iranian mission began almost immediately, his spokesman Frederick Jones said, "John Kerry has no plan to travel to Iran." (source) Unfortunately in the world of spin and political-speak, that could mean he just hasn't made his airline reservations yet. If the Obama administration decides it is in their own best political interest to strengthen the Ahmadinejad government at the expense of the Iranian people and the security of the United States and our allies, Senator Kerry will be winging his way to another rousing defeat soon enough.