Iran’s President Offers Guarded Opening to U.S.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday made one of his nation’s strongest overtures toward the United States since the Islamic Revolution, inviting American scholars, artists and tourists to visit to help create a “crack in the wall” of hostility dividing the two countries.

But Khatami added that “a bulky wall of mistrust” remains and is too great for U.S.-sought government-to-government talks to have any chance for success at this time.

Although the tone of Khatami’s speech--an instance of international diplomacy via the Cable News Network--was overwhelmingly conciliatory and respectful toward America, he said his country is not desperate for political relations. It is prepared to wait until it sees a more friendly attitude from U.S. officials, he said.

“We feel no need for ties with the United States, especially [given] that the modern world is so diverse and plural that we can reach our objectives without any United States assistance,” he said. “We are carrying out our own activities and have no need for political ties with the United States.”

Khatami appeared to be choosing his words carefully, suggesting that the question of resuming U.S.-Iranian relations--sundered during the 1979 hostage crisis--is now a matter of when, not if. That alone was a radical departure for a regime that has made “Death to America” a main motto and anti-Americanism a central tenet since its founding by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Still, Wednesday’s speech was received in cautious fashion in Washington, where State Department spokesman James P. Rubin observed of Khatami: “We welcome the fact that he wants a dialogue with the American people. . . . But we continue to believe that the way to address the issues between us is for our two governments to talk directly.”

As for Khatami, he noted that, in U.S.-Iranian relations, “There is a great mistrust between us. If negotiations are not based on mutual respect, they will never lead to positive results. . . . There must first be a crack in this wall of mistrust to prepare us for a change and create an opportunity to study a new situation.

“Nothing should prevent dialogue and understanding between the two nations, especially between their scholars and thinkers,” he added. “Right now, I recommend the exchange of professors, writers, scholars, artists, journalists and tourists.”

He criticized the “behavior of the American government [which] in the past, up to this date, has always exacerbated the climate of mistrust, and we have so far not detected any sign of change of behavior.”

He cited decades of American government actions that he said have angered Iranians:

* The U.S.-engineered coup that brought down Iran’s government in 1953.

* U.S. financial backing for the unpopular regime of the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

* U.S. efforts since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the shah, to isolate Iran economically.

* And a $20-million allocation by the U.S. Congress with the purpose of bringing down the Islamic government.

At the same time, Khatami came close to apologizing for the 1979 holding of 52 hostages for 444 days at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as a revolutionary excess, and he denounced terrorist attacks such as those that have killed innocent civilians in Israel.

Regarding the hostage crisis, which led the U.S. to sever ties with Iran, Khatami said: “I do know that the feelings of the great American people have been hurt, and of course I regret it. . . . In the heat of the revolutionary fervor, things happen which cannot be fully contained or judged according to usual norms.”

Now, he said, Iran has matured.

“With the grace of God, today our new society has been institutionalized . . . and there is no need for unconventional methods. . . . There is no need for anything but discourse, debate and dialogue.”

The Iranian president said that one of the “falsehoods” directed against Iran is that it is trying to obtain nuclear weapons. U.S. concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions led to the unilateral imposition of economic sanctions against the Islamic regime in 1995.

“We are not a nuclear power and do not intend to become one,” he said in the 45-minute interview, adding that the country has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and is willing to submit to inspections by international arms monitors.

He challenged critics of the regime to present proof of allegations that it is bankrolling terrorist groups. He said Iran would “deal” with any Iranian found to be giving financial support to terrorists.

He said Iran disagrees with the Middle East peace process but will not seek to “impose” its views on the Palestinians. His harshest words were for Israel, which he called a “racist, terrorist regime” that has shown itself to be expansionist at the expense of Palestinians.

Since winning the presidency in May with 70% of the vote, Khatami has taken a new, significantly less strident tack toward the United States and especially its people, though not necessarily its government.

This, in turn, has angered powerful conservative factions within Iran that still harbor bitterness toward the U.S. government and do not want to see what they regard as the purity of their revolution diluted. Among those who have made clear that they will not abide any change in U.S.-Iranian relations is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

If Khatami failed to extend an offer of friendship to the U.S. government, his opening discourse--in which he mentioned the pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, the Declaration of Independence, Alexis de Tocqueville and Abraham Lincoln--made clear that he harbors deep admiration for many American values.

“I believe that if humanity is looking for happiness, it should combine religious spirituality with the virtues of liberty,” he said. “And it is for this reason that I say I respect the American nation, because of their great civilization.”