Ahmadinejad Desires Dialogue!
Hooshang Amirahmadi

A very important development on the part of the Iranians has been widely ignored in the United States: President Ahmadinejad’s desire to open up a dialogue with President Bush and arrive at a negotiated settlement of the Iran-US nuclear dispute! In the last several months, Ahmadinejad has made many efforts to send such messages to Washington. He initiated the effort by sending his infamous letter to President Bush, which fell upon deaf ears. He then proposed a debate with President Bush, which was once again ignored. He visited the US last year when his Presidency was only a month old and he is in New York City again as I write these lines!

The most important sign that President Ahmadinejad wants a negotiated settlement of the US-Iran dispute is the response Tehran has given to the UN Security Council’s demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment programs. While Iran rejected this demand as a pre-condition for negotiations with the 5+1 group (which includes Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and most notably the US), it has agreed to negotiate a suspension and has even offered, according to scattered reports, to suspend enrichment for a short while to allow for the negotiations to start. Iran has even slowed its enrichment activities significantly.

Iran had long maintained that the suspension of its uranium enrichment programs was not negotiable. The fact that it is now accepting to negotiate the suspension is in itself a major change of position, and must be encouraged with appropriate incentives and sincere offers of dialogue. The Bush Administration is best advised to hear not just the moderate voices coming from Tehran but also the voices from the hardliners becoming increasingly reasonable and even moderate with regard to relations with the US! The Administration must not be distracted by Mr. Ahmadinejad’s terrible statements about Israel and the Holocaust, particularly now that he has denied that he meant what the media has interpreted him to mean!

The American Iranian Council believes that there is no better way to settle the US-Iran dispute than through negotiations, and that there is no better way to help democratic development of Iran than for the US to normalize relations with Iran. Normal diplomatic ties, even in the face of continuing disputes between the two governments, are in the best interests of both nations. The Bush Administration should take Mr. Ahmadinejad’s challenge and show the Iranian people that it is prepared to arrive at a peaceful understanding with Iran. If Tehran were to fail such a challenge, it would pay a heavy price, both domestically and internationally.

Khatami’s Trip to the US Begins a New People- to-People Dialogue
Hooshang Amirahmadi

On September 12th, former President Mohammad Khatami completed a 12-day private speaking tour across the United States, which took him to New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, VA, and Boston. He arrived in New York on Aug. 31, just as U.N. Ambassador John Bolton was declaring that the deadline had passed for Iran to comply with the U.N. demand that Iran suspends uranium enrichment. While in the US, Khatami spoke at the United Nations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Washington National Cathedral, the University of Virginia, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He also discussed his views in private gatherings at MIT and Georgetown University and gave several interviews to the American and European media.

The American Iranian Council believes that the tour was successful in achieving its main objective: to initiate a sincere dialogue (and particularly an interfaith dialogue) with certain private non- governmental groups in the United States. It was also successful in indirectly suggesting that dialogue and negotiation between the United States and Iran would be the best ways to settle the current dispute between the two great nations. More importantly, the tour made clear to President Bush that the voices coming from Tehran represent many different viewpoints and that the Islamic Republic is not a monolith. This last point is especially important, as the Bush Administration has long viewed the Islamic regime as an outlaw in its entirety. By contrast, the Clinton Administration always made a distinction between the best and the worst sides of the regime in Tehran. Both positions are wrong as factional politics differ on issues, and on US-Iran matters the truth is somewhere in the middle!

In a private discussion with President Khatami, I asked him whether he plans to ask Tehran to reciprocate American hospitality by extending invitations to former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He said he was in favor of doing so, but that he lacked the authority to make such invitations. In his own personal capacity, he said, he has communicated his desire to these former presidents to establish dialogue with them. I pointed out that it was not fair that the Iranian authorities use American hospitality to deliver their messages but refuse to reciprocate. I also pointed to the fact that the US has allowed Iran to establish an extensive special interests section in Washington DC, despite the fact that Tehran has refused to reciprocate. President Khatami expressed hope that such imbalances will be remedied in due course.

We at the AIC urge the Iranian authorities seriously to consider reciprocal exchanges of this sort, and to help expand the people-to-people dialogue that is now gradually taking shape and becoming increasingly acceptable to the Bush Administration. While President Bush views the current government in Tehran with suspicion, he is becoming increasingly persuaded that establishing cultural and academic exchanges with Iran is ultimately in the best interests of the United States. We believe such exchanges are also in the best interests of Iran and hope that they will rapidly expand before obstacles develop and the enemies of relations between the two countries divert the course again towards a more hostile environment between them. The time has come for Tehran to reciprocate American goodwill, and that time is now.

Former President Mohammad Khatami Tours the United States!

On September 12th, former President Mohammad Khatami completed a 12-day private speaking tour in the United States which brought him to New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, VA, and Boston. He arrived in New York on Aug. 31, just as U.N. Ambassador John Bolton was declaring that the deadline had passed for Iran to comply with the U.N. resolution on nuclear enrichment. While in the US, Khatami spoke before the United Nations, the Council on American- Islamic Relations, the Washington National Cathedral, the University of Virginia, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. President George W. Bush claims to have personally signed off on his visa.

Related links:

Interview with Mohammad Khatami – CNN.com - Transcripts
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSC RIPTS/0609/04/i_ins.01.html

War Backfiring on U.S., Khatami Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501198.ht ml

Khatami Lecture
http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/ programs/khatami/1.shtml

Iran's Khatami Urges Talks, Not Threats
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory? id=2409160

Iran's Response to the EU-US Incentive Package

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claimed that she was "quite, quite certain" that UN Security Council members would support sanctions in light of Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Nevertheless, on Tuesday the six world powers that are coordinating the issue (the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) failed to issue a joint statement criticising Iran's nuclear defiance after China and Russia refused to endorse US-backed tough language.

The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed El Baradei stated that "Iran has not come into full compliance" with the IAEA board's requests and has yet to "clarify important outstanding issues that have been there for over three years." The IAEA also said that the report published last month by the US House of Representatives on Iran's nuclear program contained "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information," and that it took "strong exception" to "incorrect and misleading" claims in the report that the IAEA was covering up some of its doubts about Iran's nuclear intentions.

David Albright at the Institute for Science and International Security called the response "muddled" and "lacking a coherent argument" but said it contained some reasons for optimism. "Nothing in the document," said Albright, "precludes continued negotiations and eventually achieving a halt to enrichment."

Initially, the European Union's chief diplomat, Javier Solana, was scheduled to meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on Thursday, Sept. 14th, following two previous meetings in as many weeks. Both sides said that "misunderstandings" over the incentives package had been cleared up, and Larijani claimed that he was "optimistic" about clinching the long-elusive deal with Solana. On Thursday, however, this meeting was postponed, suggesting that both sides still had reservations about the deal. In their stead, aides to the two diplomats met in Paris.

Related links:

Full Text of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Response to the Package Presented on June 6, 2006
http:// www.isis- online.org/publications/iran/iranresponse.pdf

Persian version of Iran’s responseto the Package
http://isna.ir/Main/NewsView.as px?ID=News-787721&Lang=P

ISIS Issue Analysis: Iran's Response to the EU: Confused but Sporadically Hopeful, Jacqueline Shire and David Albright, September 11, 2006
h ttp://www.isis- online.org/publications/iran/confusedbuthopeful.pdf

Ahamdinejad and Larijani Travel to the US

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will travel to New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly. Last month, President Ahmadinejad challenged American President George W. Bush to a "debate" on this occasion, but the White House refused to accept his challenge. The two leaders will, however, have an opportunity to meet face to face on two occasions: at a luncheon sponsored by outgoing General Secretary Kofi Annan on Tuesday afternoon, and a dinner hosted that evening by President Bush.

Ramin Jahanbeglo Is Free Now

A leading Iranian intellectual arrested four months ago on spying charges has been freed, Iranian news agencies say.

Ramin Jahanbegloo, who also holds Canadian citizenship, is a writer and lecturer on politics and philosophy.

He was arrested at Tehran airport in early May, and was accused of having links with foreigners and of trying to undermine the Iranian government.

Iranian human rights groups, scholars and the Canadian government had called for his release.

Mr Jahanbegloo, who holds doctorates from the Sorbonne and Harvard University, has written and edited more than a dozen books.

A senior Iranian official from within the judiciary had been quoted as saying earlier in August that Mr Jahanbegloo had confessed to attempting to undermine Iran's system of clerical rule, and had made an apology. Source: BBC

Iranian writer 'freed from jail'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/52995 60.stm

Ramin Jahanbeglo's interview with ISNA (In Persian)
http://isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx? ID=News-780366&Lang=P

Annan’s Trip to Iran

No UN advance on Iran nuclear row
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/53099 50.stm

Tehran assures Annan on Lebanon
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/53077 88.stm

Persian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/stor y/2006/09/060912_an-annan.shtml

Bush's Message to Iran
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR2006091401415.ht ml

Europe set for nuclear talks with Iran
https://registration.ft.com/regist ration/barrier?referer=&location=http% 3A//www.ft.com/cms/s/45cb2dd4-4287-11db-8dc3- 0000779e2340.html

A Cleric Steeped in Ways of Power
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/09/world/ middleeast/09khamenei.html? ex=1158465600&en=3c7e89840c453a50&ei=5070&em c=eta1

President Bush Delivers Remarks on the War on Terror
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090500656.ht ml

Iran's Lebanon Card
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/article.print? id=8052

http://www.sharghnewspaper.ir/850530/ht ml/index.htm

Foreign Relations, 1969-1976 Documents on Iran and Iraq, 1969-1972
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/e4/

Persian Links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/ 2006/09/060913_he-ft-nuc.shtml

http://www.sharghnewspaper.ir/850611/ht ml/index.htm

Is Iran trying to build a nuclear weapons program? Can the West accept Iran’s claim that it is developing its program solely for peaceful purposes? These are the questions that echoed throughout Washington when Iran’s nuclear program was revealed to the world. Since then, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has completed a three year inspection of numerous nuclear research and military sites on Iranian soil. Even though the results were not conclusive, Washington suspects that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Furthermore, Washington maintains that Iran is the chief supporter of international terrorism today and has provided Hezbollah with the rockets that it used against Israel in last month’s conflict. For these reasons, America is less than eager to see nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian government. Nevertheless, neither America nor its allies have been able to offer any constructive alternatives to ensure that Iran ends it nuclear program.

Once this matter became a major concern, with the potential to affect international peace and stability adversely, the US referred it to a group of six nations, including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States) and Germany. Earlier this year, the group demanded that Iran temporarily halt its enrichment activities, until it could be proven that its nuclear program was purely for peaceful purposes. One of the aims of this demand was to allay the world’s suspicions regarding Iran. However, nothing has been done to resolve the matter. Iran has refused to halt its enrichment activities after a prolonged freeze during the three year long IAEA inspections. Iran also delayed its response to a package of incentives offered by the group of six nations during the Summer. Iran’s response enraged the members of this group, particularly the United States, and consequently Washington has adopted a more coercive approach. As a result, it seems as if both Iran and the West have hardened their positions.

The group of six nations passed Resolution 1696, which demanded that Iran halt its enrichment activities by August 31st and formally respond to the incentive offer. Iran ignored the deadline and continued with its enrichment program, as well as opening a new heavy water reactor. In defense of these actions, President Ahmadinejad insisted that Iran will not give up its right to develop nuclear technology, especially for peaceful purposes. In fact, he challenged President Bush to a public debate in order to address these and other international issues. Bush did not accept this challenge because Ahmadinejad has not addressed his demands towards Iran. In addition, Russian and China have both offered views opposed to those of the other members of the group, and made alternate suggestions for dealing with the Iranian question.

Russia has ruled out any military action, in direct contrast to the US, which has not yet discarded a military solution. One reason for Russia’s disagreement with the US is its desire to protect its commercial interests in Iran, such as the sale of weapons, nuclear technology, and aircraft to Iran. China also wants to protect its commercial interests in Iran, as it is one of the biggest customers of Iranian oil. These two nations argue that patience, restraint, and adopting a new way of thinking about the issue will be more successful in resolving their concern with Iran. Both powers insist on resolving the matter through dialogue and negotiation. In fact Japan (another big oil customer), Tanzania, and Argentina also feel that Iran has a right to pursue its peaceful nuclear ambitions.

Considering the challenges offered by both the East and West, the most practical solution is to engage in dialogue with the Iranians, for numerous reasons. One, Iran itself had offered direct talks with the United States on many occasions. Two, Iran has endured sanctions in the past that were imposed upon it by the United States. Even if more sanctions were imposed, it is unclear whether they would have any effect in forcing Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. Many Iranians agree with President Ahmadinejad that Iran is not afraid to endure further sanctions. The question remains as to what kind of sanctions the US is pursuing.

In a recent interview with John Bolton on CNN, the nature of the proposed sanctions was slightly clarified. Ambassador Bolton said that the sanctions are targeted towards the regime and not the civilian population. Some of the measures would impede any financial transactions related to nuclear proliferation. Such sanctions would lengthen the list of sanctions already in place. Similar sanctions already prevent Iran from buying aircraft parts from American companies and have forced Iran to purchase aircraft from Russia. In fact, these sanctions have had concrete and even disastrous effects, as the recent airline crash in northeastern Iran has demonstrated. Most aircraft in Iran are old and in need of repair. Other sanctions preventing economic growth in Iran include Executive Orders 12957 and 12959, prohibiting American companies from investing in Iran. Obviously, although the new sanctions may be designed to hurt the regime, they will likely have much the same effect as previous sanctions have had upon the Iranian masses. There is, however, a solution to this predicament that can benefit both sides.

If anything could bridge the gap between the East and West, it would be the offer of a resumption of diplomatic talks by the Americans, with the cooperation of the Iranians. Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranians have reasserted themselves as an independent nation by fighting off imperial power and are loathe to submit to the authority of any other country. Additionally, with the removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq and the Taliban regime from Afghanistan, the Middle East is experiencing a power vacuum, which Iran feels that it can fill. If the Americans resume diplomatic relations with Iran, the Middle East will quickly become much less of a threat to the policy makers across the Atlantic.

The benefits of dialogue are quite numerous and will definitely help both sides. Economic benefits are among the most important and obvious results of dialogue. American companies will invest in Iran’s oil and gas industries. As world demands for both natural resources increases, competition for these resources will only become more fierce. Such investments would mean lower gas prices in the US, the growth of jobs, and the lowering of inflation. A second benefit would be Iran’s cooperation in the struggle against extremism in the Middle East. If Iran were engaged in Afghanistan it could bring stability to the country and prevent the Taliban from making a comeback. Iran could also promote political stability in Iraq due to its influence with the Iraqi Shi’ites. Such arrangements would mean greater security and political stability for both Iran and the United States. Also, the US might be able to counterbalance China’s growing influence in the Middle East, as China has already been recognized as a developing world power and an economic challenge to the US. Finally, the US can neutralize Iran’s threat to Israel by means of dialogue. It could also broker a compromise on the issue of the Palestinians between Israel and Iran. In return, Iran would accept Israel’s existence and use the US as a mediator for resolving issues with it. Through the cooperation of Israel, the US, and Iran, peace could be achieved in the Middle East. It might be difficult or even impossible for the world to imagine such a solution, but strange bedfellows who have been enemies in the past can sometimes accomplish noble goals together in pursuit of a better tomorrow.

Keyvan is a graduate student and an AIC volunteer.

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