Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami is reputedly a political moderate, but during recent appearances in the United States he has not strayed from the hardline position held by Iran's incumbent leadership on Tehran's controversial nuclear program.
At a news conference in Washington on September 7, Khatami called for direct US-Iranian talks to help resolve the nuclear crisis. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The two countries have not had direct diplomatic relations since the US severed ties in response to the American hostage crisis, which began in late 1979. The United States currently holds the toughest stance against Iran in the nuclear crisis, with Washington urging the imposition of sanctions via the United Nations Security Council.
"Relations between our two respective governments should be through dialogue," Khatami said via an interpreter. "The threat of use of force, and the language of threat, has never produced a resolution."
Khatami served as the Iranian president from 1997 until 2005, when he was succeeded by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose election marked the triumph of an Iranian neo-conservative movement over reform-minded political forces. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Although they can be considered, to a certain extent, as ideological opposites, Khatami's comments in Washington generally adhered to positions staked out by Ahmadinejad.
Khatami repeated Tehran's claim that the country's nuclear program was designed for peaceful, civilian energy purposes. He added that Iran was willing to hold negotiations on the nuclear program, but only without preconditions. A UN resolution insists on an Iranian suspension of uranium enrichment activities before talks can begin. "During the course of negotiations we could talk about suspensions, the nature of suspensions, the duration of suspensions," Khatami said.
That Khatami would stoutly defend the Iranian nuclear program isn't surprising, given that much of the country's then-secret research was conducted during his administration.
The former president also defended Iran's political practices and its human rights record. "Democracy is a process, not project. I am aware of some problems in Iran and I myself am a critic of these," he said. He called attention to the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where US military personnel routinely tortured detainees, to parry international criticism about Iran' own lengthy record of rights abuses. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Khatami is on a five-day tour of the United States -- at the invitation of the UN secretary-general, along with private US organizations -- ostensibly to promote interfaith dialogue. The Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation at Cathedral College hosted his appearance at Washington's National Cathedral on the evening of September 7, during which he avoided commenting on current affairs.
His tour has prompted protests from a wide variety of groups, including supporters of the former Iranian shah and representatives of the country's restive Azerbaijani minority. Rahim Shahbazi, the deputy chairman of World Congress of Azerbaijanis, who was among protesters September 7 outside the National Cathedral, said Khatami's role in Iran's suppression of ethnic minority rights discredited his calls for interfaith cooperation. "There are some questions: Why he is here? Why he is here now in the middle of nuclear crisis and right after Middle East events," Shahbazi said.
Khatami is the highest-ranking Iranian dignitary to visit the United States since the cutoff in diplomatic relations over 25 years ago. Thus, his statements are sure to be scrutinized for any clues of shifts in Tehran's nuclear position.
