Iran Unplugged
Its radical President taunts the world, then tries a bit of charm-but offers no substantive concessions
UNITED NATIONS-As diplomatic roadshows go, this was the polar opposite of slick. No big ad buys, no polished PowerPoint presentations, and, certainly, no cocktail receptions. No, no. The host wore bland, off-the-rack white sport jackets paired with pale, open-collar shirts. But he drew a crowd, did Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, offering a rare up-close look at the new public face of Tehran's nuclear ambitions, its antipathy for Israel, and its zeal for regional muscle-flexing.
Even as whispers of war grew louder in Washington, Ahmadinejad launched his charm offensive hard on the heels of his denunciation of the United States in his address to the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly. He used his visit to New York to try to put a resolute-but-unthreatening face on Iran's aims-at an acutely delicate moment in the U.S.-led drive to get the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran. The key countries in the coalition pressuring Iran are struggling to stick together on their insistence that Iran stop enriching uranium before formal talks can begin. A move to sanctions has been expected ever since Iran rebuffed the Security Council's August 31 deadline to halt uranium enrichment. The delays-"extra innings," as a top State Department official, Nicholas Burns, put it-come as Europe is probing both Iranian and U.S. officials for a compromise formula to get full-fledged negotiations started.
"Just friends?" The Iranian president seemed determined to soften his image as an implacable foe of America, chuckling and joking at times and, for the most part, lightening up on his often-fiery rhetoric. He praised Americans as "a strong people, a good people," urged "dialogue," and called for exchanges of scientists and students, along with direct flights between Iran and the United States. "Can't we just be friends?" he asked at one point in an unusual session at his Manhattan hotel with Iran specialists and a handful of journalists. Still, he grew steely-eyed in reply to a question from U.S. News about the Bush administration's apparent preference for "regime change" in Iran. Ahmadinejad had heard that "on numerous occasions," he said, but insisted that it would never happen. "They are not able to do that," he said.
On the most dangerous flashpoint, Ahmadinejad repeated assurances-dismissed in Washington and in most European capitals-that Iran's nuclear program "will be solely used for peaceful purposes." In any case, he said, nuclear weapons are proscribed by Islamic teachings. "The Iranian people," he said, "don't need a nuclear weapon." Ahmadinejad called the focus on uranium enrichment an "excuse" to try to deny Iran its right to nuclear energy. He also professed disappointment that President Bush didn't respond to his meandering, 21-page letter this spring or to his challenge to a debate at the United Nations.
Ahmadinejad remains a bit of a mystery to official Washington. A U.S. intelligence profile, U.S. News has learned, depicts him as seeing the world "in very black-and-white terms" yet also possessing the capacity to "change quite quickly." But Ahmadinejad came to America bearing no gifts-other than his gift of idiosyncratic oratory. He refused to yield to the U.N. demands. And he said nothing to disavow his past comments suggesting that the Holocaust is a myth and threatening Israel. These "constant provocations," as one European diplomat puts it, have served to rally Security Council opposition to the prospect of a nuclear-capable Iran. "He does have that quality," agrees a senior U.S. official. But Ahmadinejad's outbursts resonated with hard-liners in Iran and elsewhere in the region. "He has put Iran back on the map," says Sanam Vakil, an Iran specialist at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. "The common man still admires him."
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