Aides to top US lawmakers expressed surprise on Wednesday after Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said he was mulling talks with members of the US Congress after receiving letters from them. “Everyone thinks this is dead wrong,” an aide to a senior Democratic senator who is a key voice in US foreign policy said after asking other congressional experts about Larijani’s claim that US lawmakers had written him. The official, who requested anonymity, said some nongovernmental organizations had been “trying to enlist House members” to support scientific or cultural exchanges with Iran, and that some might have written letters in support of such efforts.
