U.S., Iran courting — cautiously

By MARK BOWDEN

A peculiar courtship began in earnest recently between the United States and Iran.

Even though it was the Islamist republic that severed ties almost 30 years ago by kidnapping and holding hostage America’s entire diplomatic mission, it was Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was acting like the aggrieved party. Said the man who is pushing ahead with a nuclear program in defiance of the United Nations, whose regime has been arming terrorist organizations in the Middle East, and who has made a habit of calling for the elimination of Israel, it is American behavior that needs to change before such talks can begin. He did not, however, dismiss overtures from President Obama.

Speaking at a rally celebrating the 30th anniversary of that country’s revolution, one that featured the usual “Death to America” chants, Ahmadinejad said: “The Iranian nation is ready for talks, but in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.” It remains to be seen how Obama might meet those vague conditions.

“I think they are temporizing,” said John Limbert, an Iranian expert, former ambassador, and one of the Americans held hostage there for more than a year. “They don’t know what to do. They are looking for some way to play this opportunity to their advantage, but, to tell you the truth, I think the election of Obama has really thrown them into a cocked hat.”

It is a sad truth that the great affairs of state are often shaped by comic book sensibilities. Iran’s official version of the United States, “The Great Satan,” hasn’t changed much since the days of the revolution, when Ahmadinejad and other student zealots used their seizure of the American mission, “The Den of Spies,” to leverage their religious faction into power. In their eyes, we remain the “world devourer,” the source of all evil and oppression.

A big part of that belief rests on our country’s ugly history of slavery and racial oppression. Limbert and the captive “spies” of the 1979-80 hostage crisis endured regular harangues from their young captors about the evil, racist, murderous government they represented. Racism has long been Exhibit A in the rhetoric of America haters, even in nations, like Iran, where ethnic and religious groups are openly suppressed.

Ahmadinejad has amply demonstrated that his worldview remains rooted in this fevered past. He confidently predicted last year, even as Obama was leading in the polls, that Americans would never elect a black man president.

Mighty blow

This cartoon vision of our country is untenable with the charismatic and popular Obama living in the White House with his handsome family. No one is arguing that this consequence was enough, on its own, to elect Obama, but there is no doubt that his elevation has struck a mighty blow against Iran’s official propaganda. It would be hard to overestimate how great a blow.

So far, our new president seems ready to seize his historic opportunity. He took some heat during the campaign when he called for opening a dialogue with the mullahs, and he has reiterated that intention since becoming president, most recently at his first news conference — “In the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction.”

The timing may be right. Iran’s economy is in worse shape than America’s. Declining oil prices, inflation, and unemployment have made life harder and have further discredited an already despised regime. In the larger world, Ahmadinejad is seen as dangerous and bizarre; in Iran he has presided over an unpopular crackdown on secular Western social and cultural influences, and failed to deliver on broad promises of economic reforms. If the country’s “Guardian Council” of clerics permits reform candidates to run in this spring’s elections — many were barred in the last one — then the president and his supporters may soon be fighting for their political lives. One suspects that if the mullahs again block an electoral reckoning, pressure for drastic change will only grow.

So far, Obama’s moves have been cautious and smart. Last week, he linked efforts to curb nuclear proliferation, the most urgent of issues with Iran, to a renewed effort by the United States and Russia to reduce their own enormous nuclear arsenals, “so that we then have the standing to go to other countries and start stitching back together the nonproliferation treaties that, frankly, have been weakened over the last several years.”

This denies Iran its favorite heroic pose, that of the embattled holy state standing up to The Great Satan, by invoking the larger danger of nuclear war. Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is a mission that transcends contesting nations, political systems, or religions. If Iran ducks such talks, or refuses to compromise, it sets itself against not just America, but against the hopes of mankind.

X Mark Bowden is a former staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer and author, most recently of “The Best Game Ever.” He wrote this for The Inquirer. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.