Letters: Perspectives on the U.S. and Iran
Re “U.S., Iran talk of diplomacy, differences,” Sept. 25
President Obama has seldom failed to disappoint. He appeared to recognize, a couple of years ago, that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would have to be based on the pre-1967 borders — a plan that made sense to everybody except the Israelis, so he stopped pushing it.
At the U.N. on Tuesday, Obama “conceded,” as The Times puts it, that “Iranians long have complained of U.S. interference in their affairs, and of America’s role in a 1953 coup.”
Our president merely deigned to “concede” that we had a hand in the 1953 coup that removed a democratically elected prime minister from office. What kept Obama from apologizing to the Iranian people at the U.N. (under rather ideal diplomatic circumstances) for our torpedoing of what had been a legitimate Iranian democracy and replacing it with a repressive monarchy that morphed into what Iran has now?
Shame on us.
Don Bustany
Studio City
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that Iran is averse to developing an atomic bomb and is instead devoted to researching aspects of nuclear science. This is great news. It behooves world scientists to make connections with their Iranian counterparts, compare research papers and, generally, advance the field.
Professional associations should make a strong effort to coordinate with their colleagues in Iran.
Dov B. Malkin
Los Angeles
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