Bob Tippee
For better or worse, relations between the US and Iran—such as they are—soon will change.
The approach of a pivotal moment gives the US reason to ponder a world in which it and this vitally important, strategically located supplier of oil and gas managed to get along.
Since the detention of American hostages in Tehran after the Islamic revolution of 1979, the US has demonized Iran—proscribing commerce with it, denouncing it as a terrorist state, assigning it a corner in the triangular "axis of evil."
Iran's conflicted government sometimes acts as though it relishes the revulsion, which it largely deserves. But pressures are building for which truculent defiance will prove to be no match.
Inside the country, student demonstrations have increased in frequency and intensity to the point that President Mohammad Khatami has had to publicly discount their importance—a sure sign of worry.
Iranians in growing numbers clearly despise their country's oppressive theocracy and have lost patience with Khatami, whom they elected to bring about reform.
Outside the country, concern grows over Iran's plan to start up a uranium-enrichment plant. Tehran claims the project is for domestic energy. It has rebuffed a United Nations request that it allow unrestricted inspection of nuclear activities.
So change is inevitable, if not imminent, its nature at this point unpredictable.
As pressure grows, Iran should understand that after Sept. 11, 2001, the US lost whatever forbearance it might once have possessed for politically inspired murder. It also lost all patience for weapons of mass destruction in suspicious hands.
And the US needs to understand that attempts to manipulate Iranian affairs from inside can do it no good. Just as Americans remember the hostage crisis, Iranians remember US involvement, a quarter-century earlier, in the successful coup against nationalist Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
Beneath this thick crust of political antagonism lie cultural affinities that keep hope alive for rapprochement. Not least among them is a shared appreciation for freedom.
Miraculous change can occur if the US somehow helps Iranians fulfill that yearning—but doesn't meddle.
(Author's e-mail: [email protected])