End 20 Years of Mutual Hostility

Former Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance dropped a diplomatic bombshell last month when he called for the reestablishment of diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States. Coming from a man who as secretary of state was directly involved in the rupture of those relations during the 1979 hostage crisis, Vance’s call should be heeded.

Speaking to the Asia Society in New York on Jan. 13 in a lecture co-hosted by the American-Iranian Council, Vance set no conditions on renewing ties, simply calling on the leadership in both countries to put the past behind them and look to the future.

Aside from an account in the Washington Post, Vance’s surprising comments were essentially ignored by the media and seem to have gotten only passing notice by the Clinton administration. The Iranian regime appears to have brushed his speech aside as well, perhaps not surprisingly given the ongoing contest among leadership elements in Tehran and the rigidity about any contact with Washington.

All of which is regrettable at a time when American interests in the broader Central Asian-Persian Gulf region are very much at stake--not to mention Iraq. Vance was making a kind of wake-up call, noting that the two countries share important common interests in the fight against drugs, instability in Afghanistan and concerns about Iraq, security in the Gulf and the future of the states of Central Asia.

Vance wisely observed that diplomatic relations at the outset need not be at the ambassadorial level, nor necessarily friendly, but that once relations are reestablished, the legitimate concerns felt by the U.S. about terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the Middle East peace process could begin to be seriously discussed. Iran has its own concerns, not least about U.S. economic sanctions and total trade embargo.

Vance is right. Both governments surely know that the issues dividing them cannot possibly be dealt with except by dialogue. That Iran and the U.S. continue, after 20 long years, to hold each other at arm’s length while publicly reciting respective grievances makes no sense for either country. For the U.S., the result is to complicate our strategic interests throughout the region. American business interests are frozen out of what will be one of the area’s larger emerging markets. And two decades of confrontation have deprived us of contact with an entire generation, Iran’s young people, who--as Vance pointed out--clearly want to be integrated into the world community.

All of which, of course, is easily said. Action is something else. Two decades of accumulated public emotions, encrusted official pronouncements and legislated prohibitions of one kind or another burden the record; they cannot easily be set aside. As Vance put it, his proposal “requires political will and a leap of faith” by leadership in both countries.

Let the United States be the first to show that spirit. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said last month, without apparent reference to the Vance speech, that Iran should not be in isolation forever and reiterated that the U.S. is prepared for a dialogue. The Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, responded that concrete steps are needed.

An opportunity currently presents itself in an American firm that wants to respond to an Iranian opening for imports of agricultural commodities, where a special license would be needed because of the U.S. embargo on trade with Iran. Granting that license would be a step of material interest to both countries.

Follow that up, for example, with an offer to assign an American vice consul to the U.S. interests section of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, to facilitate the handling of the people-to-people contacts of which President Mohammad Khatami speaks.

Then we should make concrete our stated readiness for dialogue by a specific, even public, offer to do so, possibly at the United Nations in New York. And if that is too much for Tehran to bear, we can suggest behind-the-scenes conversations between trusted emissaries in a place like Geneva or Oslo.

It is well past time for both Iran and the U.S. to recognize reality. We need to talk.