if they don’t want to talk to you. Of course, every effort shold be made to negotiate–but it’s always good to bear in mind that the mullahs have been as recalcitrant as the Bush Administration…and more recalcitrant than the Clinton Administration (at least, in Clinton’s latter years). In 2000, a handshake had been choreographed between Clinton and then-Iranian President Khatami during the UN General Assembly meeting, but Khatami pulled out of the deal at the last minute–pressure from the Supreme Leader Khamenei and his circle. (I’ve been told that Khatami says that backing out of the handshake was the greatest regret of his presidency.)
It’s no secret why the mullahs are reluctant to talk to us: they need a Great Satan to keep their public distracted from the generally disastrous job they’re doing running the government. As I’ve written before, my favorite piece of (official) graffiti in Teheran is painted on the old U.S. Embassy–now the Museum of the Great Satan: “On the day the Great Satan praises us, We shall mourn…” I’ve always thought that was the perfect rationale for unilateral U.S. recognition of Iran: it’s the last thing the mullahs want.
Meanwhile, according to AFP via Juan Cole, Khatami has reemerged and is speaking more courageously than he ever did as President:
‘ In his speech, Khatami referred to the ambition of Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to export the 1979 Islamic revolution around the world, but expressed fear this wish was being distorted. “What did the imam (Khomeini) mean by exporting the revolution?” he asked in the speech Friday to university students in the northern province of Gilan, according to the Kargozaran newspaper. “Did he mean that we take up arms, that we blow up places in other nations and we create groups to carry out sabotage in other countries? The imam was vehemently against this and was confronting it,” he added. His speech has been seen by some observers as accusing the Iranian authorities of encouraging militants to destabilize the Middle East, in particular Iraq and Lebanon. ‘
It’ll be interested to see how long it will take for the mullahs to shut him down.