Lobe Log:
Shireen T. Hunter is a Research Professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Recently, President Donald Trump gave Iran’s leaders a telephone number, saying that he is waiting to talk to them. Observers and analysts in both in Tehran and Washington dismissed this gesture as meaningless.
Given the background of U.S.-Iran relations under Trump, especially American withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the imposition of harsher sanctions on Iran, Tehran’s reactions and observers’ skepticism are not surprising. Even before this latest offer of talks, Iranian authorities, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, had said that Tehran will not negotiate under pressure and with bullies. Clearly, the Trump administration’s actions are responsible for the increased tensions between Washington and Tehran.
However, Tehran’s reluctance to engage in direct talks with America at a normal state-to-state level within a bilateral framework long predates the Trump administration. Let’s not forget that even in 1986, when Iran was desperate for weapons for its war with Iraq and its moderates wanted to explore ways of reconciling with the United States, contacts with Washington were conducted in secrecy. Iran’s hardliners revealed these contacts, which culminated with Reagan’s National Security Advisor Robert McFarland’s ill-fated trip to Tehran and what came to be known as the Iran-Contra affair. The hardliners supposedly had gotten the information through Syria; the information was first published in the Syrian daily /Al Shar’a/. Syria, in turn, had received it from the Soviet Union. These revelations undermined then speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who wanted some form of normalization of relations with America.
For many years, this episode prevented further efforts at reconciliation. It was arguably the second worst event after the hostage crisis, whose legacy has adversely affected the course of Iranian-American relations. It alerted those opposed to U.S.-Iran reconciliation in Washington, including in the Department of State, as well as in the Middle East, and led them to double their efforts to prevent any more clandestine contacts with Tehran. In view of the embarrassing episode of the Mac Farland visit to Tehran, the United States decided that it would only talk openly and with responsible officials of Iran.
In the following decades under both the Rafsanjani and Khatami presidencies, hardliners sabotaged every effort at U.S.-Iran reconciliation and vetoed high-level official meetings between officials of the two countries. During the last three decades, the identity of hardliners in Iran has changed. During the 1980s and the 1990s, leftists prevented such contacts. After Khatami assumed power in 1997 and the leftists suddenly became born- again liberals, a new breed of right-wing elements sabotaged and resisted Khatami’s outreach to the world.
Part of this dynamic can be explained even today in terms of factional fighting over power and privilege. However, the real problem lies elsewhere: the inextricable link between the legitimacy of both the Islamic revolution and the regime and its anti-imperialist struggle, or to be exact, anti-Americanism. The traditional moderates or conservatives, best represented by Rafsanjani, were never as anti-American as the Left. Once the Left became liberal, it shed its excessive anti-Americanism, and thus the mantle of safeguarding the revolution passed on to the new conservatives. This group now consists of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), a number of key hardline clerics, including Ibrahim Raeisi, the head of the judiciary, and his father-in-law, the fire-breathing Friday prayer leader of the holy city of Mashhad, plus the economic groups connected to them.
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If the IR Regime was smart, they would do exactly what Kim Jong Un did.
First, Zarif would call Trump and says that he wants to come to the White House and talk. Then he will make a high profile visit with Trump with several hugs and kisses. He can even wink at Pompeo and Bolton. Trump would say a few nice things about Khamenei and Soleimani. BiBi/Bolton/Bin Salman/Rajavi would get super pissed. Zarif leaves and nothing happens.
The only other thing I can suggest , Zarif should bring a couple of carpets, some Pistachio and for a good measure a couple of pints of Golden shower to seal the deal.
tRump is helping to make Russia great again
Embrace BDS movement and Reject occupation, If the bar code starts with 7 29 put it back on the shelf
Buy American, say NO to Chinese madeTrump
“The time is always right to do what is right” – Martin Luther King
What Zarif really needs to do is stop by his neighborhood butcher shop and buy half a pound of sheep donbeh so he lubricate his rear end and those of Rahabr's and Rouhani's!!! Because very soon all three of them plus the rest of the IRI goons will be butt attacked by the Trump-BiBi team!!!
Pentagon Wants to Send 10,000 Troops to Middle East Amid Rising Iran Tensions: Report
And now to the misinformed, Ill-informed, misled know-it-all diasporic Iranians: