Guest Opinion in the Oregonian by Rebecca Griffin and Kelly Campbell.

View the video presentation delivered by Victor W. Sidel, M.D., a founder and former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. The event took place on Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, at UC Davis MIND Institute.

The United States should engage Iran. Threats of military confrontation will further isolate Iran and thus increase threats to U.S. interests in the region.

The U.S. Defense Department wants to accelerate by three years the deployment of a 30,000-pound bunker-buster bomb, a request that reflects growing unease over nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.

A planned U.S. missile shield to protect Europe from a possible Iranian attack would be ineffective against the kinds of missiles Iran is likely to deploy, according to a joint analysis by top U.S. and Russian scientists.

China is glad to see the United States mending relations with Iran and it supports the resolution of Iran's nuclear issues via dialogue and negotiations, the Foreign Ministry announced here Thursday. "China encourages Iran to make active contact with the concerned parties in a bid to seek a comprehensive, long-term and proper solution to Iran's nuclear issue," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Most Americans believe the United States government should hold direct talks with Iran in the next few weeks, a recent poll indicates. According to a survey conducted by CNN Television and polling firm Opinion Research, 59 percent of Americans say US President Barack Obama's administration should hold talks with top Iranian officials in the next few weeks.

The decision by the Obama administration on addressing nuclear concerns breaks with Bush policy, which had largely sought to isolate Tehran. The U.S. doesn't rule out bilateral talks.

Dr. Catherine Thomasson, former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), joined with others today in urging the Congress to set the stage for peaceful negotiations with Iran and decried the increasingly belligerent posturing by the administration.

Despite a recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, President Bush continues to present a bellicose attitude toward Iran. PSR believes that the time is ripe for a policy of direct diplomacy with Iran, a position also called for in the bipartisan Iraq Study Group’s 2006 report.