White House warming to Kerry's Iran trip?

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- White House officials supported a suggestion that U.S. Sen. John Kerry was considering a trip to Tehran as a deadline for nuclear negotiations draws near.

A blog for U.S. news magazine Foreign Policy said there were rumors circulating that the Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was considering a trip to Tehran.

Anonymous White House officials quoted in The Wall Street Journal warmed to the idea but noted the trip would be entirely Kerry's visit.

"This sounds like the kind of travel a chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee would -- and should -- undertake," the official said.

Tehran and Iranian media reports downplayed the Kerry suggestion as nothing more than rhetoric, noting Iran saw no change in the U.S. foreign policy position as a deadline on nuclear issues approaches.

U.S. President Barack Obama had reached out to Tehran, sending a personal message on the Iranian new year in May and offering condolences for the passing of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died during the weekend.

Kerry, for his part, played a significant role in the diplomatic effort to end the election impasse in Afghanistan and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus in February.

Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones minimized the rumors saying there were no immediate plans for a trip to Tehran.

"Is he planning now on going to Iran? The answer is no," said Jones.