Ahmadinejad Desires Relations With the US
Omid Memarian
Hushang Amir Ahmadi, an Iranian scholar, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey and president of the American-Iranian Council, traveled to Iran last February to talk with Iranian officials about relations with the US. Read on for his views.
Rooz ®: Do you believe the pragmatic tendency among Iranian conservatists is strengthening?
Hushang Amir Ahmadi (HAA): Yes. But I do not view even Ahmadinejad to be among the most hardline conservatists. There is a deep difference between Ahmadinejad and Larijani, and the hardliners. Like the hardliners whose tribune is the Keyhan newspaper. I think there is now a great divide within the Principalists (this is a name that the conservatists who are in power in Iran call themselves) which has split the group.
R: But whatever radical measures Ahmadinejad has taken so far Keyhan newspaper has supported it, such as the government’s policies towards Israel, the nuclear issue, and the Holocaust topic. Why do you believe that Ahmadinejad and Keyhan are different from each other?
HAA: Where they meet are really over tactical issues. For example, I believe that Ahmadinejad’s position on Israel has not been strategic, but tactical. This is so because Ahmadinejad desires to get closer to the US. He tactically presses on the Israeli issue to persuade the Americans to talk with him, in which he will soon succeed.
R: You said that Mr. Ahmadinejad desires to get close to the US. What evidence do you have for this?
HAA: Many. I can mention some of them, but there are also others that I cannot. In any case, I am aware and know for certain that Ahmadinejad is getting closer to the US. In the very near future representatives from Iran’s Majlis and the US Congress will meet. Ahmadinejad is moving very rapidly forward regarding the US. The difference between Ahmadinejad and someone like Khatami is that Khatami had said that the Americans were good people and that he wanted very much to talk with them but that he would not. Contrary to this, Ahmadinejad tells the Americans that they are bad and do bad things, but that he wants to talk with them. The first one had a positive and correct understanding of the US but did not wish or could not talk with them. The latter, however has a negative view of America but wants to talk with it. This is why when you listen to Ahmadinejad you think that he is negative. That is the product of his perspective. But you must look at his actions. Incidentally, whatever he has done regarding the US has been positive. He has given interesting proposals to the Americans which they have rejected.
R: What interesting proposals did he suggest that were rejected by the Americans?
HAA: Talks with the Americans over Iraq, the establishment of direct flights between Tehran and New York. These were very serious proposals.
R: But you know very well that the problems between the US and Iran are not the absence of direct flights between Tehran and New York. There are very serious issues between them.
HAA: Absolutely. You see, Ahmadinejad’s analysis is based on the experience that while Khatami suspended uranium enrichment in the country he got nothing in return for it. This is a historic fact. He failed to get anything from the Europeans or the Americans. What Ahmadinejad is saying is that if I continue the same approach, it will not produce any results. But the package of incentives that the US is willing to provide to Iran today to entice it to suspend its uranium enrichment is perhaps twenty times as juicy as the one that was offered to Khatami.
R: How far do you think this showdown will continue?
HAA: I think Ahmadinejad should not go beyond a certain point, and he must compromise and suspend uranium enrichment temporarily and establish relations with the US.
R: You were in Iran last February. Did you meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad?
HAA: I do not wish to talk about this.
R: When you were in Iran did you propose a road-map for the establishment of relations with the US to Iranian authorities”
HAA: I did, but it is not the government that makes that final decision about relations with the US. The issue of relations with the US is not confined to Ahmadinejad. Neither Khatami nor Rafsanjani could untie this knot. But a development is taking place inside Iran that is changing the current thinking on the subject. A few months ago Mr. Khamenei made a speech in Yazd and said that we could not remain enemies with the US forever, but the timing (for change) was not right now. So the regime has departed from its ideological path regarding the US and is now in the practical realm. The question now is not whether we should have relations with the US but when and how to realize this. The next president (in the US) has a greater chance of changing the situation and work on it.
R: Six months are left for the US presidential elections. During the recent weeks much has been said about Bush’s desire for a military strike – even a limited one – against Iran. Do you think such remarks are merely to scare Iranian officials or is there a real justification for them?
HAA: All the problems between the US and Iran are related to the events of the next seven or eight months. I believe that the next six months are of grave concern. The Iranian government too is very concerned that an event may take place over which it will have no control, which could lead to an American military action against it. There are many forces in the country that are watching events very carefully.
R: Were you not worried about your safety when you went to Iran a few months ago?
HAA: I did not go to Iran without making the necessary coordination. I had gone with larger plans and there were measures that were taken in Iran to ensure that I would arrive and return safely. From the moment I arrived at the airport till I left the country I did not encounter any problems, either official or otherwise. The meetings that I had in Tehran were very positive and I returned completely energized to continue my work on relations between Iran and the US. I think that I was relatively successful in the mission that I had defined for myself, and which had not been put to me by anyone else.
R: Do you have any important news that you would like to share (from your trip)?
HAA: If we can put the next few months peacefully behind us, we will certainly have good news regarding Iran-US relations.