Iran Paper Talks of Possible Thaw in Ties With US

Text of report by the political desk headlined: “Washington’s positive signs for relations with Tehran” published by Iranian newspaper E’temad website on 6 January

Political desk: White House has started the fifth day in the new Christian calendar by reacting to some remarks made by the esteemed leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i] regarding relations between Iran and America. A State Department spokesman on Middle East issues, David Foley, yesterday said: “America wishes to have good relations with Iran.”

Broadcasting that report, the Voice of America announced that Washington had conveyed some positive signals to Iran for the establishment of relations between the two countries. Those remarks were made two days after a speech by the esteemed leader. During his visit to Yazd, the esteemed leader said: “Severing our relations with America is [has been] one of our basic policies. However, we have never said that those relations will be severed forever. Nevertheless, the conditions [set] by the American government [Shara'et-e dowlat-e America, which could also mean the present American government] are such that establishing relations at the moment would be against the interests of our nation, and naturally we do not pursue it [now].”

David Foley, a State Department spokesman, was responding to those remarks, and he also spoke about America’s readiness to establish good relations with Iran. Nevertheless, it seems that what the White House has understood from the esteemed leader’s words is that if the conditions are right then there is a possibility for the establishment of relations. This is especially significant as the American Council on Foreign Relations has also recently issued a report indicating that at the moment there is a possibility, more than ever before, for melting the ice in the cold relations between Iran and America.

However, regardless of how Washington has interpreted the recent remarks of the highest-ranking personality in the Islamic Republic of Iran, ever since 13th Aban 1358 [4th November 1979, the taking of American hostages in the Iranian Embassy in Tehran], Iran and America have experienced many ups and downs in their frozen relations. Although the incident of the “occupation of American Embassy in Tehran” drew a red line under the diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, nevertheless, many experts believe that during the past few years those tense relations have on a number of occasions had the chance of being turned into closer relations, based on safeguarding the principles held dear by the two sides.

The first step for testing the shredded rope of relations between the two countries was taken by the American President Ronald Reagan, the step that came to be known as the “Iran-Contra” affair. On the basis of that plan, Robert McFarlane, Reagan’s national security advisor, arrived in Tehran on a secret mission with a ‘cake, a copy of the Gospels and a revolver’ to hold talks with a number of Iranian officials. However, in the midst of the tense situation due to the Iran-Iraq war, his secret visit to Iran was made public much earlier than had been expected, and consequently it did not produce any results. In this way, the first steps taken by American officials to improve their relations with Iran in the context of ‘a secret deal’ came to nothing.

Although many other developments took place in the relations between the two countries after that visit, nevertheless, the interview given by Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, the Iranian president, to the American television network, the CNN, followed by an apology by Madeleine Albright, the American minister of foreign affairs, for the 28th Mordad [18th August 1953] coup d’etat [against Dr Mohammad Mosaddeq's government] provided another basis for improving the hostile relations between the two countries.

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami’s slogan was ‘dtente [taneshzoda'i, removing tension] in foreign relations’. Consequently, those remarks provided some hope that the two sides would be able to push back the black clouds that had covered the bilateral relations between them for a number of years. In response to those new stances by Iran, America also set aside for a while the ‘D’Amato Law’, on the basis of which any investment in Iranian oil and gas industries of more than 20 m dollars by third-party companies would face a penalty [by the American government].

However, the story of hesitation by the two sides about the resumption of bilateral relations was not something that could have been resolved by such steps. Consequently, the efforts by Bill Clinton’s government [Administration] to improve relations with Iran also failed, and after the end of his administration George Bush occupied the seat of power at the White House. Although no special developments had taken place in the relations between the two countries at the beginning of George Bush’s administration, the events of 11th September 2001 resulted in George Bush placing Iran in his ‘Axis of Evil’ in the year 2002. This was despite the fact that immediately after the collapse of the twin towers in America, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami had expressed the sympathy of the Iranian people with the American government and nation and had strongly condemned terrorism. As the result of his stances, Iran had been vaccinated for a long time.

Meanwhile, the developments in Afghanistan for the first time in many years placed the representatives of the two countries next to each other at the negotiating table. Thus, a dialogue was started between the two sides, of course with the participation of representatives from Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia and the United Nations.

However, this positive period in the relations between the two countries over Afghanistan was short-lived, because after a short time when the ice was beginning to melt in bilateral relations, once again America decided to freeze those relations. From then on, Iran’s nuclear issue, the war between America and Iraq and the presence of the coalition forces in Iraq have provided the background for a renewed confrontation between Iran and America on a scale even more extensive than before. With the influence that America enjoys among the other members of the [UN] Security Council, she speeded up the process of referring Iran’s nuclear file to the Security Council. On the other hand, by making repeated allegations against Iran, Washington called for an immediate end to what it called Iran’s interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs.

At the same time, for the second time after their earlier talks over Afghanistan, on 7th Khordad [28th May 2007] the representatives from the two sides sat round the same table with some representatives from Iraq. This time, they were trying to talk about the security situation in Iraq, in view of Washington’s allegations against Iran. Following that decision, a first and a second round of talks took place in Baghdad between the Iranian ambassador in Iraq, Hasan Kazemi-Qomi, and Ryan Crocker, the American ambassador in Iraq. A third round of talks was also held at the level of experts in al-Khazra’ district in Baghdad.

At the same time, according to some news reports, from the start the two sides intended to raise the level of their talks to other current issues between the two countries if the outcome of their talks over Iraq proved to be positive.

Meanwhile, some American officials believe that in the third round of trilateral talks with Iran, certain issues beyond the situation in Iraq have been raised between the two sides. On that basis, they [the Americans] have expressed their readiness to hold a fourth round of talks with Tehran.

In view of these developments, it seems that White House officials, who must vacate their seats in about 10 month’s time, have shown greater willingness to talk with Iran than they had done before. However, at a time when America had achieved some success in winning the agreement of the European Union for issuing a third resolution against Iran [at the Security Council] and was also trying to win the support of Russia and China for passing that resolution, the report by 16 American intelligence organizations [NIE] about Iran’s nuclear activities was like water poured on the fire of tension between Iran and America. It seems that that report has softened their position towards Iran and has moved them towards negotiation with Iran.

At the same time, yesterday one of the American intelligence [as published] organizations also issued a report about the melting of ice in relations between Iran and America. According to the report of Fars News Agency, quoting an Internet site, the American Council on Foreign Relations in Washington has softened its stance towards Tehran. It seems that diplomatic relations between the two countries would be accompanied with a softer tone in the near future.

Originally published by E’temad website, Tehran, in Persian 06 Jan 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.