Iran’s Ex-President Khatami Visits Harvard

Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami came to the US and spoke at Harvard on Friday. What he said wasn’t all that important compared to the fact that he came at all. First, he apparently wanted to make the five-city visit of which the Harvard speech was one part. Second, and much more important, the Bush administration didn’t prevent him from acquiring a visa, meaning they wanted him here as well. Could it be that some are trying to beat the drums of peace?

Mr. Khatami did say a number of things that are worthy of note. He said, “I regret the hostage crisis ... and I sympathize with the hostages and their families for their loss and their hurt but this was [also] a revolutionary reaction to half a century of the US taking Iran hostage.” Since the current President of Iran is a Holocaust-doubter (if not a Holocaust-denier), one notes with interest that the former president said, “I believe the Holocaust is the crime of Nazism. But it is possible that the Holocaust, which is an absolute fact, a historical fact, would be misused. The Holocaust should not be, in any way, an excuse for the suppression of Palestinian rights.”

As for Usama bin Laden, well, he merits outright condemnation, “First, because of the crimes he conducts, and second because he conducts them in the name of Islam, the religion which is a harbinger of peace and justice.” He added, “We Muslims should condemn these atrocities even more strongly. Terrorist, which means killing of civilians, is a human being that lacks morality . . . [and] will not go to heaven.” Islam is not monolithic.

Nonetheless, he is an Iranian theocrat and is unlikely ever to change his stripes. His view of how the world should be is at odds with that of most Americans. Yet, the Wall Street Journal reports that Mr. Bush himself approved the visa application at the same time that the Bush administration is trying to get sanctions imposed on Iran for its continued research into building a nuclear bomb.

It is clear that some sort of olive branch has been extended by one party or the other, possibly even both. Given the direction that the rest of the US-Iranian relationship is going, there couldn’t be better news. The White House knows that it doesn’t have a military option in Iran, and that the current path is no constructive. The Khatami visit is an attempt to get some kind of back-channel communication going between Washington and Tehran, and that in itself is significant. International relations is a field covered in failed hopes, but in such circumstances, failing to hope guarantees disaster. One can only wish for follow-up visits and, one dares hope, a Nixon-in-China moment when Mr. Bush visits Iran before he leaves office. Such a move won’t solve all the problems in the relationship, but it just might keep the pot from boiling over.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home