U.S. Religious Leaders Just Back from Iran Renew Call for Direct Talks

Iran’s Decision to Release British Sailors and Marines Highlights Need for Dialogue

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

April 4, 2007

*** BOOKER ALERT ***

[Washington, DC] – Member of a delegation of U.S. religious leaders that returned from a week-long trip to Iran in February and demanded that direct government-to-government negotiations between the United States and Iran are available for interviews. The delegation was the first U.S. religious group to meet with an Iranian president in Iran since the revolution in 1979.

Jim Winkler is the General Secretary of the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS), the international public policy and social justice agency of The United Methodist Church. He has led delegations to the Middle East, Iraq and Germany seeking peaceful solutions to global conflict and traveled throughout the world to support the justice work of the United Methodist in Africa, Asia and Europe. He has preached and led workshops and training events in Russia, Nigeria, and the Philippines, and is a frequent spokesperson for the justice work of The United Methodist Church to the national and international media.

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