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This story is from September 24, 2013
Chidanand Rajghatta / TNN / Updated: Sep 25, 2013, 11:02 IST
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WASHINGTON: The United States and Iran are renewing direct diplomatic contact after nearly 35 years. Responding to Iranian overtures, President Barack Obama on Tuesday asked his Secretary of State John Kerry to hold talks with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. There are expectations that Obama himself may exchange at least handshakes with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani later in the day in what may be seen as one of the watershed moments in 21st century geopolitics.
Cautious optimism marked the American response to Iranian initiatives at the United Nations. Obama devoted part of his 45-minute explanatory discourse on US foreign policy to Iran, saying he was encouraged by the moderate course chosen by the new Iranian president and Teheran's forswearing of nuclear weapons, including a fatwa against them by the clerical leadership. On its part, the Washington was not seeking regime change in Iran and respected the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy.
These mutual commitments, he said, offered the basis for resolution of a complex issue in which the US would recognize Iran's right to access nuclear energy if Teheran gave up pursuit of nuclear weapons in a transparent, verifiable manner.
The thaw, if it comes about, may not be as momentous as the one that followed the 1972 Nixon-Mao meeting, but it will result in cooling of global oil prices, an easing of West Asia tensions, including the conflict in Syria where Iran is a player, a dilution of Israeli-Iranian hostility and a constructive role for Tehran in Afghanistan.
"I don't believe this difficult history can be overcome overnight. The suspicions run too deep. But I do believe that if we can resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program, that can serve as a major step down a long road toward a different relationship, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect," Obama said, underscoring the hard task ahead given decades of mistrust from both sides. "The roadblocks may prove to be to great, but diplomatic roads must be tested," he added.
In Tehran, Iran's foreign office spokeswoman Marzeih Afkham said the meeting could be the "beginning for nuclear talks in the new era."
US officials indicated that Kerry, along with his counterparts from the other P-5 nations, would be meeting Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif within a day or two, perhaps on Thursday.
The possible US-Iranian thawing could largely overshadow Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington (he meets Obama at the White House on Friday) and his UN engagements on the weekend, including a possible meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday. But besides being relatively inconsequential given Pakistan's growing marginalization, New Delhi has greater stakes in the US-Iran thaw, because both countries are major energy suppliers to India.
In his exposition on US foreign policy, Obama pushed back at questions (principally from Russia) about American exceptionalism, noting that it was only the United States that out both lives and money where its mouth is. The danger for the world is not an America that is too eager to immerse itself in the affairs of other countries, or to take on every problem in the region as its own, he said; The danger for the world is, that the United States after a decade of war, rightly concerned about issues aback home, aware of the hostility that our engagement in the region has engendered throughout the Muslim world, may disengage creating a vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill.
"Such disengagement would be a mistake. America must remain engaged for our own security, but I also believe the world is better for it. Some may disagree. But I believe America is exceptional. In part because we have shown a willingness through the sacrifice of blood and treasure to stand up not only for our own narrow self interest, but for the interest of all," Obama said.
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