INSIDE IRAN - No matter the view in Iran over whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is rightfully the president, he will have the opportunity once again to appear at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York as Iran’s head of government. In the past, his speeches have angered and humiliated the West, increased his popularity on the streets of the Arab world, and embarrassed a large number of Iranians at home vehemently opposed to his policies.
Despite his less than diplomatic style and his less than presidential demeanor, and despite the fact that his undiplomatic mannerisms are usually misunderstood, Ahmadinejad will seek to keep people guessing; his speech is likely to be full of ambiguity and surprise.
In his recent trips to New York and other official visits to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, Ahmadinejad proved to be Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s messenger on foreign policy issues, and repeated the familiar lines. But today, even Khamenei knows that managing the domestic crisis coupled with increasing pressure caused by international sanctions requires a much wiser foreign policy than the anti-Israel, anti-West diatribe that Ahmadinejad usually articulates.
This time around, Ahmadinejad, who routinely predicts the collapse of the Western political and economic system, has stopped composing letters and instead is speaking about dialogue, talks, and negotiations. President Ahmadinejad had only been in office for six months when he decided to write an eighteen-page letter to then-president George W. Bush. His letter was written like a prophet talking to his pupils; full of “wise advice” and calls on the United States to “do the right” thing. His prophet-like letter fell on deaf ears. The same was true with the election of President Barack Obama. The Iranian president composed two letters, both of which failed to open the knots in the entangled U.S.-Iran relationship.
Now, it seems he will try again to extend an olive branch. Ahmadinejad told a reporter from ABC News that “The Iranian people have always been ready for talks and we will welcome that! But talks must be within the framework of laws and justice and respect.” His conditions for legal, just, and respectful talks can simply be ignored. Simply put, Ahmadinejad just wants to talk.
Before sitting down with the ABC reporter, Ahmadinejad sent an indirect message to Obama: he released an American hiker, hoping for American reciprocity. Ahmadinejad said “The fact that Ms. Shroud is being released on humanitarian grounds demonstrates that Iran is ready for talks. And of course, these talks must be conducted with just conditions and with mutual respect.”
It is interesting to note that Sarah Shroud was imprisoned in Iran for a year and was suddenly released not so coincidentally right before Ahmadinejad’s UN trip. The Iranian president once again tried to make himself the subject of affection, this time of Shroud and her family, and managed to minimize the number of questions he would have received in the United States over Iran’s holding of hikers.
With his offer for talks, Ahmadinejad has cleverly thrown the ball in America’s court. It is now time for the American president to play ball. Ahmadinejad keeps talking about negotiations, but President Obama has not forgotten the bitter taste of rejection when Supreme Leader Khamenei called his offer “a cast iron hand” that was “covered with a velvet glove.”
Obama thus faces a dilemma. Ahmadinejad’s image has gradually gotten worse in the world; Obama needs a counterpart whose image is not as tarnished as Ahmadinejad’s. In addition, the American president cannot simply ignore the suffering of the Iranian people and the horrendous human rights situation in the Islamic Republic. Talking to Iran may prove to be an impossible task, no matter how much Ahmadinejad seems to wants to chat.
September 21st, 2010
September 21st, 2010
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