Former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has urged Washington to establish ties with Iran saying the move would benefit the US, reported Presstv.
Brzezinski, a campaign adviser to US president-elect Barack Obama, helped former President Jimmy Carter to open full diplomatic ties with communist China.
He stressed that the US should adopt a similar approach to Iran.
"One of the reasons that I do favor a dialogue with the Iranians, and if it is feasible, the establishment of normal diplomatic relationships, is that I think that would help promote political change in a country which is far less centrally controlled, far less subject to effective state authority than was or is the case in the People's Republic of China," The Salt Lake Tribune quoted Brzezinski as saying.
He made the remarks at a forum at the Brookings Institution in Washington marking 30 years since the establishment of formal relations with China, which the US had refused to recognize after the communist takeover in 1949.
The US and China opened embassies in early 1979 to establish official diplomatic ties.
Brzezinski, in an interview with Ha'aretz on Monday, said that a military strike against Iran is not a "real option" for Israel or the US to halt Tehran's nuclear program.
"[The military option] is not a real option for the US and it is not a real option for Israel because Israel doesn't have a capability to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities," he said.