Iranian president examines U.S. policy

CAIRO, Egypt - Conservative Iranian newspapers have fiercely criticized the idea and this country's supreme leader has ruled it out. So the question remains: Will Iran's new president, Mohammad Khatami, dare to try to build a bridge to the United States?

The answer should come tonight when Khatami, in a televised interview with the Cable News Network, launches what he has promised will be a "thoughtful dialogue" with "the great American people."

So far, Western officials and analysts have been caught by surprise by his friendly tone and confident moves in five months in office to break down two decades of official hostility toward the United States - the country long stigmatized by Iran's theocratic leadership as the "Global Arrogance" and "Great Satan."

But Khatami's steps have provoked resistance from hard-liners in the Iranian regime, most notably from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who delivered a rare Friday sermon last week in which he sharply dismissed any suggestion that U.S.-Iranian relations are on the mend.

Conservatives in Iran have never liked Khatami and in recent days they have stepped up their criticism of any change in policy toward the United States. Over the airwaves, at mosques and in newspapers they have declared that America remains Iran's No. 1 enemy and that any talk of rapprochement is a fantasy.

"Any hands that reach out to America should be cut off," said the hard-line paper Jomhuri Islami.

But the strident anti-U.S. campaign only seems to underscore that the very question of repairing relations with the United States - a topic once taboo even for discussion in Iran - has now entered the mainstream of political debate.

Iranian political historian Sadiq Zibakalam, interviewed by telephone yesterday from Tehran, said he foresees "a very carefully balanced speech" from Khatami. "He is under a lot of pressure from supporters and opponents of the rapprochement," the analyst noted.

Khatami's talk will be along the lines of, "We have no quarrel with the American people and also that the American government is the representative of the American people," Zibakalam predicted. "But he will also press the Iranian point of view and will call on the U.S. to shift the hard-line positions of the American government against the Islamic republic."

And unless the Clinton administration responds with "tangible and realistic signals," it will be difficult for Khatami to overcome the barriers and difficulties to improve relations, he said.

So far, there is rising interest in Iran over what Khatami will say. The English-language Tehran Times, which has opposed any softening toward Washington, said yesterday that interviews with a cross-section of Iranians showed that most believe "the time is not ripe" to resume formal ties with America.

The paper also quoted critics. "Resumption of ties with America is a defeat for Iran and would disappoint Muslims across the world," said parliamentary deputy Hemmat Beig-Moradi. Any such move would be useless due to the "selfish approach" of U.S. officials, agreed another deputy, Mohammad Hussein Zare.

But rapprochement - so long as it does not translate into U.S. dominance of Iran - also has won supporters. "People are actually sticking their head out and talking about it," Zibakalam said.

A policy of "close but equal relations with the United States has strong popular support in Iran," said Ayatollah Mahmoud Tabatabai Qomi, a senior Iranian cleric and Khatami supporter, interviewed last month by the Saudi pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

01-07-98