Some positive signs seem to have been coming from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the past month or so. First, on April 15, he announced that his administration was preparing a new proposal for talks with the West over Iran's nuclear program. Next, when Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi was sentenced to eight years in prison on trumped-up charges of espionage, Ahmadinejad urged on April 19 "that the accused...enjoy all freedoms and legal rights to defend themselves and their rights...not be violated." Saberi was released on May 11.
Granted, I don't think that the nuclear proposal was ever completed. And Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel at a UN racism conference caused diplomats from 23 countries to walk out on him. However, his comments seem tamer than normal: Israel is a "cruel and repressive racist regime" as opposed to Israel must be "wiped off the map." He's like a smoker who's gone from two packs a day to a few cigarettes a day; he's not quite there, but he's progressing.
So why are we now seeing the softer side of Ahmadinejad? A combination, I think, of Barack Obama's willingness to engage the Iranians and their upcoming elections. Obama is popular in Iran (so popular that Ahmadinejad is willing to steal Obama's slogan), and Obama's popularity is making it difficult to maintain the hard-line, "death to America" position. Ahmadinejad is adopting a more moderate tack in an attempt to dispel the "view...that [he] was right for Bush, but not right for Obama."
Even if Ahmadinejad is re-elected, it seems that the next president of Iran will be more moderate. This is how foreign relations should be done. And just think how much better off we'd be now if it was done sooner.
No comments:
Post a Comment