Iran President Hails Americans, Chides Leaders

In the strongest indication yet that at least part of the Iranian leadership would like to turn a new page in relations with the United States, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday praised the “great” American people and called on U.S. politicians to catch up with changing times.

The remarks at a Tehran news conference followed an unusually positive statement directed toward Iran last week by State Department spokesman James Foley, who said the United States would “welcome and support the idea of an open dialogue between different cultures and civilizations.”

The exchange hinted that Washington and Tehran may be preparing the ground for a fundamental shift away from the mutual hostility the two countries have demonstrated since Iran seized the U.S. Embassy in its capital in 1979 and held 52 diplomatic personnel hostage for 444 days.

In Washington, however, White House spokesman Barry Toiv played down the importance of Khatami’s comments, saying the U.S. is less interested in softer rhetoric than in evidence that Iran’s policies have changed.

“The United States is looking for deeds, not words,” Toiv said. “Iran needs to stop the development of programs for weapons of mass destruction. It needs to stop supporting terrorism, and it needs to stop impeding the Middle East peace process. These are the actions the United States is looking for.”

At the Tehran news conference, Khatami said: “I take this opportunity to pay my respects to the great American people, and hope to have a dialogue with the American people and about the United States in the not-too-distant future.” The news conference was called three days after Iran’s successful hosting of the worldwide Islamic summit, the largest gathering of foreign leaders ever held in the country.

Khatami--a reformer who has been compared in his country to former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and even to Mahatma Gandhi--said he is seeking “a historical talk with the people of the United States,” and did not rule out speaking to the U.S. government as well, saying “it is elected by the American people, and we respect that.”

He criticized U.S. leaders, however, saying they “have fallen behind the times.”

“The United States still imagines that it is the sole power, and that it must impose its will on the whole world at any cost,” he said.

“As we step from one century to another, humanity needs tranquillity and justice,” the president told more than 250 domestic and foreign journalists. It was only his second news conference since he took office in August.

Khatami’s statements followed Iran’s recent intensive efforts to repair strained relations with Arab governments that cooperate closely with the United States, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah recently offered to be an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, but the proposal has not been embraced publicly by either side. Despite the signs of a more positive atmosphere, there are formidable political obstacles in both countries in the path of rapprochement.

In Iran, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been much harsher than Khatami in his language toward the United States. He assailed America only last week as “The Global Arrogance” and accused it of mounting, along with Israel, an all-out assault on the Islamic faith.

If Khatami moves too quickly toward Washington, and with his other moderating reforms, he risks running into a backlash from Khamenei, from the country’s potent security apparatus or from other power centers steeped in two decades of anti-American propaganda.

Much of Iran’s establishment, including conservatives in the Majlis, or parliament, opposed Khatami’s election campaign and was taken by surprise by his landslide victory in May, when he collected 20 million votes, or 70% of the ballots cast.

One indication of the internal resistance Khatami faces is that official religious militias have shut down film showings and musical performances that Khatami’s government authorized. One political analyst interviewed in Tehran last week said he feared for Khatami, even suggesting that “somebody could shoot him.”

In the United States, meanwhile, members of Congress have favored tougher, not easier, relations with Iran. Last week, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) warned that, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the former Warsaw Pact, Iran now poses the greatest security threat to Europe.

Israeli leaders also consider Iran one of the region’s long-term dangers, especially its moves to acquire medium- and long-range missiles.

Any relaxation by the United States of its present policy of containing Iran would have to take into consideration the implications for Israel’s security. Iran is the main sponsor of the Lebanese Hezbollah, which has been fighting to oust Israeli troops from a strip of southern Lebanon with increasing deadliness.

Western intelligence agencies say Iran backs the Hezbollah with arms, money and training, although Iran maintains its support is only “spiritual.”

The Tehran Times, a newspaper considered close to the Foreign Ministry, on Saturday defended Iran’s role in Lebanon.

“Washington must appreciate that the spiritual support extended to Hezbollah is legitimate, since the Hezbollah is fighting for liberation of their motherland occupied by the Zionist regime,” the article said.

The United States was the dominant foreign power in Iran after World War II and used the country as a Cold War bulwark against Soviet influence. But Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 Islamic Revolution was directed in large part at freeing Iran from the influence of the country he called “The Great Satan.”

Fear of U.S. dominance is still strong in Iran, and if the United States and Iran eventually do resume relations, Iranian analysts emphasize that those ties will have to be based on mutual respect and not resemble the superpower-client relationship of the past.

As the Islamic summit showed, the United States has in the main failed to convince the rest of the world that Iran should be treated as an international pariah, similar to Iraq or Libya, for its alleged support of terrorism and its various weapons programs. Over U.S. objections, Europe has been engaged with Iran and has not joined the unilateral trade sanctions imposed by Washington in 1995.

With U.S. companies absent from the scene, European enterprises are reaping the benefits in trade and business--such as a $2-billion natural gas deal reached in September between Iran and a French-Malaysian-Russian consortium.

Middle East observers outside the U.S. government said Sunday that they believed Khatami’s remarks were significant.

“At least rhetorically, it suggests some signaling here,” said Richard Haass, former Middle East specialist at the National Security Council. “He seems to understand that, to be a participant in the world today, you have to have a relationship with the United States.”

Times staff writer Tyler Marshall in Washington contributed to this report.