Iranian Leader’s Overtures Prompt Optimism in U.S.

Despite their cautious reaction in public, senior U.S. officials privately expressed quiet enthusiasm Thursday about Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s opening to the American people.

“It may take awhile, but we finally appear to be heading in the right direction,” a senior Clinton administration official said.

After Khatami’s remarks, televised worldwide Wednesday in an interview with the Cable News Network, U.S. officials now expect several months of cultural and academic exchanges before the tentative rapprochement has any prospect of expanding to an official dialogue.

The people-to-people diplomacy will be designed to convince Iranians, as well as Americans, of the benefits of detente.

Another senior U.S. official expressed disappointment that Khatami’s overture fell short of an official dialogue and described the administration as “eager” to move into something more substantive than exchanges.

President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are now “seized” with the issue of Iran, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said Thursday.

Restless and bored with other long-standing foreign policy issues, Clinton is engrossed with the possibility of detente with Iran, administration sources said. Comparisons to President Nixon’s breakthrough with China have been noted in the inner circle.

The United States already has a “road map” of where it wants to go once a dialogue begins, Rubin said Thursday.

A key Iranian figure involved in preparing the Khatami interview with CNN predicted that, barring complications, the people-to-people diplomacy could soon move toward official talks.

“Within six months to a year, both sides will feel that they have to do something about a direct dialogue in order not to fall behind public opinion,” he said Thursday.

One California congressman doesn’t want to wait that long.

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) faxed a letter to Khatami on Thursday asking for a visa to visit Tehran before Jan. 27, the date of Clinton’s State of the Union address.

“Such a visit can lead to better understanding and to the development of conditions that will ultimately lead to better relations between our two countries,” wrote Lantos, who visited Iran in 1978 when he was an economics professor.

Rep. Robert Ney (R-Ohio), the only Farsi-speaking member of Congress, also welcomed Khatami’s overtures toward the United States.

“The idea of exchanges is good, and I appreciate the kind words to the American people. I’d like to see government-to-government talks, but this is a good beginning,” said Ney, who has recently reversed course from supporting the Iranian opposition to endorsing a U.S. dialogue with the current government.

Another key group impressed with Khatami’s 45-minute talk were Americans who were seized at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held hostage for 444 days.

“What he says makes sense to me,” said Bruce Laingen. “It’s time to get on with it and have a dialogue. We so have to crack that wall of distrust.”

Laingen added that Khatami seemed like an “impressive character” who was “sincere and comfortable” despite opposition in high places at home.

Another former hostage, Moorhead Kennedy, reflected the sentiments of several former hostages, saying Khatami’s remarks on the hostage issue should allow Americans to put the 1979-81 trauma behind them.

Khatami “put it beautifully and accurately,” Kennedy said. “Iran was anarchy at that point, and a very small group of students with a few older advisors--without [the late] Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini’s initial approval--took advantage of it. Khatami put it in that context and said he regretted any pain caused or feelings hurt in the process,” Kennedy said.

Former hostage Barry Rosen called on Iran to begin the people-to-people exchanges by inviting former hostages to visit Tehran.

At the State Department, spokesman Rubin told reporters that the United States “welcomes” the suggestion of exchanges as “useful.” Despite tough U.S. sanctions against Iran, there are no U.S. restrictions on civilians traveling there, he noted.

Californians may soon be among those involved in the new exchanges with Iran. The World Affairs Council of Orange County is now organizing a summer tour of Iran. It is also hosting an April conference on U.S.-Iranian relations, and it has asked Khatami in a letter to suggest an Iranian speaker.

The largely positive responses Thursday to Khatami reflected a switch in attitude even more than words. Diplomatic and academic exchanges have gone on quietly for years, but “there’s a willingness now to believe expressions of good intent and see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty,” another U.S. official said Thursday.

He noted that some of the issues Khatami did not mention--such as Iranian assets frozen by the United States and American ties to Iranian opposition groups that have been linked to several deadly attacks on the regime--were as interesting as the points he chose to make.

“He also did not demand withdrawal of U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf, a common theme in the past,” the official added.

At the same time, U.S. officials continue to be deeply concerned about the three long-standing issues that divide the countries: ongoing Iranian support for extremist groups, Iranian development of weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Iran’s strongest critic in Congress warned against improving relations.

“We’d certainly like to see more than rhetoric because up till now Iran has been a country that imports weapons of mass destruction,” said Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), who sponsored the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996.

And some U.S. officials expressed serious concern about several points in Khatami’s speech.

“The United States is not solely responsible for all our bilateral differences,” said Rubin, adding that Khatami’s characterization of “our foreign policy since World War II as ‘mistaken’ is also unfounded. The characterization of the U.S.-Israeli relationship was simplistic and wrong, and a continued reference to Israel as a ‘racist, terrorist regime’ is not acceptable.”

The senior administration official called Khatami’s severe language on Israel the “major guffaw” in his talk, one that could slow the prospects of a diplomatic opening. Washington was also disappointed that Khatami made no comment about the death sentence imposed by Khomeini just months before his death in 1989 on “Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam.

From his place of hiding, Rushdie said through a spokesperson Thursday that he was unimpressed with the Iranian overture, calling it a “half-measure” that won’t work.

Khatami took heat at home for trying to excuse the U.S. Embassy seizure.

“Instead of expressing regret over such incidents, we wish the American nation had been told what losses the Iranian people have suffered because of the domination of Western culture and civilization,” the conservative Kayhan newspaper said Thursday. “Why should our nation have to pay to please Western . . . tastes?”

And there were warnings in Washington against unrealistic expectations.

“Remember, a dialogue is a discussion, and it doesn’t necessarily lead to change,” Rubin said.

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A Bid for Closer Contacts

Portions of the letter from Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) to President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, seeking permission to visit.