Obama and Iran
During Barack Obama's candidacy, he said of Iran that, “For us not to be in a conversation with them doesn’t make sense.” That conversation will not be easy, but Obama was right to advocate the path of direct diplomacy, and now that he has been elected US president, he has the opportunity to follow through.
NEW YORK – While talking to an Iranian official in Tehran earlier this year, he reminded me of Ayatollah Khomeini’s fondness for comparing the relationship between the United States and Iran to that between a wolf and a lamb. But the official went on to add his own twist, “Nearly 30 years have passed, and we are not that lamb anymore, and maybe the US is not the same wolf it once was.” His point was that Iran no longer feels the deep inequality with the US that it did in the past, and that it may be time to try engagement.
NEW YORK – While talking to an Iranian official in Tehran earlier this year, he reminded me of Ayatollah Khomeini’s fondness for comparing the relationship between the United States and Iran to that between a wolf and a lamb. But the official went on to add his own twist, “Nearly 30 years have passed, and we are not that lamb anymore, and maybe the US is not the same wolf it once was.” His point was that Iran no longer feels the deep inequality with the US that it did in the past, and that it may be time to try engagement.