“A senior Iranian government official” sat down with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour yesterday, and calling the U.S. and Iran “natural allies,” he laid out the case:
“We are not after conflict. We are not after crisis. We are not after war,” said this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we don’t know whether the same is true in the U.S. or not. If the same is true on the U.S. side, the first step must be to end this vicious cycle that can lead to dangerous action — war.”He confided that what he was telling me was not shared by all in the Iranian government, but it was endorsed so high up in the religious leadership that he felt confident spelling out the rationale….
I asked whether he meant Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself.
“Yes,” he said….
He said the time is right for the United States and Iran to sit down and talk directly — to say “we recognize each other.” He said neither side has done this so far “because of the mentality on each side.”
“Each of us is afraid of looking weak if we take the first step,” he said. “We have this fear in common with America. Before contemplating recognition, each side feels it necessary to convince the other side that ‘I am not weak.’”
Sure, there’s that whole Hezbollah business, and Iran’s nuclear program (which the official claimed was for peaceful purposes, and mainly as a kind of confidence booster for the country), but for both countries, the “major threat” is al Qaeda. The question is whether the administration, which has a talent for making enemies proliferate, will follow the simple arithmetic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Of course, it’s by no means the first time that Iran has made a diplomatic overture to the Bush administration. But since going through diplomatic channels didn’t work so well then, this time Iran chose a more reliable route: CNN.
Note: Also don’t miss the follow up to yesterday’s Must Read. Maliki is still on the war path, doing everything he can to infuriate every Sunni in the country.