Friday, July 18, 2008

Dialogue With Good Intentions

There was a SMS (mobile message ) floating around last week. I received it from 3 different people. It read " President Ahmadinejad has responded to the 5+1 package on the nuclear issue and he has said the answer is 6!" It seems there was a positive tone in the message that related to the actual developments underway.

The hot weather in Tehran these days is made hotter by news that spreads, first as gossip, but quickly takes ground as fact. Steps for a gradual but full blown rapprochement with the US are apparently underway .The Americans will wisely send Undersecretary Burns to the 5+1 negotiations tomorrow in Geneva. The letters of Dr. Velayati ( Advisor to the Leader) published in Liberation and other newspapers which I mentioned in a former blog post indicated a cautious change of tone. The Guardian article made official a rumour that floated around a week ago on the establishment of an American Interests Section in Tehran. Finally the Iranian Foreign Minister Motakei in Istanbul spoke favorably about both the Interests Section and the direct flights between the two countries.
Although we should not overestimate the importance of these developments, it seems that improvement of relations will not only genuinely benefit the two nations, but both the Bush and the Ahmadinejad administrations will make the most from this development in their party elections. We need to wait until tomorrow to make any final judgment on the outcome of these talks yet we can hope that both sides take part with good intentions in mind . They also need to mind the fact that the deal that they strike needs to be face saving for both countries. The Americans need to understand that Iran cannot be ignored or denied any longer.
I think Iranians will welcome these developments but with much scepticism, they have learned to be patient and leave the final judgements to later, more convenient times.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i guess when it comes to Iran, even the most eternally optimistic fools (like me) will have to stop hoping!
i guess we were all fooled by the dream-like idea of seeing a UNITED front from the Iranian elites and intellectuals of left and right!
i guess it was futile to hope that moderately liberal Refomists and pragmaticly rational "Broad Coalition Principlists" could come together and try to save their people from isolation and disasterous Foreign Policy mistakes and missed opportunities, by standing up FIRMLY in opposition to the more radical elements among their OWN statesmen!!!
i guess Iran and its Islamic Republic have chosen the path of self-destruction, when ALL the opposition parties and groups continually fall for the oldest trick in the hands of the radical dictators: silencing people by rallying them behind the flag in front of foreign enemies!!!

you fools:
America and the West are NOT your enemies!!!!! open your eyes and look closer!

Anonymous said...

thanks for posting that! ...

please tell your supreme leader to take "president" Obama's words today (in Paris) very seriously!!!!

Obama will be even bigger than JFK, he will be the leader of ALL the hearts and minds around the world, western world, eastern world, Muslim world, Christian world, NATO world, NAM world, developed world, developing world, or under-developed world!!!

he will be the personification of the entire world's HOPES and DREAMS! the first BLACK man ever to lead a G8 country!!!

Long Live Obama!

Anonymous said...

Kathy -

A black man doesn't need to "lead" G8, thats defeating the whole purpose of what you were saying.

And you are a fool when you put your "friendship" above the security of your own "house" : lets renovate our house ourself, friends, if they really are friends, can wait for us !

Heydar

Anonymous said...

OK Heydar, go ahead and think you can afford to waste yet another golden opportunity to become a legitimate world-player (not considered a pariah state by the west), go ahead and lose this chance when you have the upper hand (when America has lost all its credibility in the world as a leader), wait until Obama becomes the president of the world's wounded tiger (babr-e tir-khordeh) and starts to win back its position of authority by showing its human face (that's precisely why they're going to elect a black face), then try to save your people from the grip of your two-faced corrupt fundamentalists who only care about their own pockets, see where you get from that weakened position! good luck with that!!!