Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Nazanin, Akhavan, and Mr. Genser, thank you for being here today.
I want to broaden the scope a bit. You talk about nuclear ambitions. You can talk about all those kinds of wonderful things, which are not naturally approved by the international community, nor Canada, but I think we have to perhaps at another time talk about the context of the Iran-Iraq situation, as to what their intentions are. Are they negotiable on the nuclear...? That's a very, very broad issue, so I'll stay out of that.
But I do want to come back to your transformation from within desire, and I have absolute respect for the intelligence of the Iranian people. I have flown with them. My instructor in the air force was Captain Ibrahim Mukadami. I also trained Iranian pilots, and I understand Iran very well. Iranians are very intelligent people. They produced a game of chess, and I believe the Iranian government is still playing chess with the rest of the world international community.
Their statements are coming out; all those things are very interesting. However, the transformation from within was tried in the late 1900s and early 2000s, and it failed miserably. Some would argue the only way to bring about change or for a change to take hold in Iran, from within, is to engage Iran diplomatically, to bring it back into the community of nations, allowing normal contact to take place over time, and information flow will have the desired effect and be gradually.... And I dare say there are no shortcuts.
I would like to receive your comment on that.