IRAN’S SUPREME leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei indicated on Saturday that Tehran is prepared to respond positively to US president Barack Obama’s offer of honest engagement with Iran.
“If you change your behaviour, we will change ours,” stated Ayatollah Khamenei, the ultimate arbiter of Iranian policy. He was speaking a day after Mr Obama offered, “respect”, “new beginnings” and recognition of Iran’s “rightful place” in the world in a broadcast on the occasion of Nawroz, the Iranian spring festival.
The ayatollah said Iran had “no experience” of the new president and government and would judge it on its actions. “Change only in words is not enough. Change must be real.”
He spoke of 30 years of US hostility to the clerical regime, support for Baghdad during the Iraq-Iran war, and the Bush administration’s designation of Iran as part of an “axis of evil”.
He rejected charges that Iran supports terrorism and seeks nuclear weapons.
The ayatollah called for the US to halt “unconditional support” for Israel, lift sanctions on Iran, and end threats against Tehran.
“The new American government wants to negotiate. They say to forget the past and are extending their hand. But if it is an iron hand in a velvet glove, it won’t have a good meaning.”
Although the ayatollah’s offer was a positive development, key western media reported that he had “rebuffed”, “brushed aside”, or “dismissed” Mr Obama’s message.
Prof Juan Cole of the University of Michigan, author of Engaging the Muslim World, said: “I can’t understand how they reached that conclusion.” He said the ayatollah’s statement “was a grumpy old man’s response to Obama’s call for engagement. But you can’t call it a rebuff”. Prof Cole pointed out that Agence France Presse, the French news agency, “got the story right, entitling their article, ‘Iran ready to change if US leads the way’ ”, while Iran’s Press TV carried the headline, “Iran vows response to real US change”.
A second commentator said that while Mr Obama may seek a new approach, Tehran is not certain he can deliver. Therefore, the ayatollah wants something concrete he can sell to the Iranian public.
The lifting of the embargo on spare parts for civilian aircraft could serve as such a gesture. An Iranian analyst noted what he considered a “condescending tone” in Mr Obama’s address, which came a week after his extension of sanctions for another year.
