Goodwill gestures shown by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to President Khatami at the UN summit on Wednesday were nothing but efforts to deceive world public opinion. History is the best witness that the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) inflicted the heaviest political, economic and social blows on the fiber of the Iranian society.
When the CIA, along with the British intelligence service, overthrew the popular government of former prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq in 1953 and restored the Shah to power, it paved the way for Western exploitation of Iran's resources. History pages covering 1953 to 1979 confirm that the dictatorial regime of the Shah did everything it could to erase Islam from people's hearts.
True, the intelligence services of the United States and Britain could not succeed in their mission and Islam remained safe except for certain misguided people who adopted Western lifestyle, distancing themselves from their great religion.
Just after the so-called goodwill gestures of Clinton and Albright, the White House on Thursday appeared unfazed by demands from President Khatami for further U.S. steps before Tehran could consider a resumption in official ties between the two countries.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a White House official brushed off Khatami's demand for "practical measures" for a restoration of relations, severed in 1980. "We do very much believe in an official dialogue with Iran," the official said, noting the fact that both President Clinton and Secretary of State Albright had gone out of their way to hear Khatami speak on two separate occasions at the UN Millennium Summit. "We have issues we want to raise with Iran," the official said, listing Tehran's opposition to the Middle East peace process, its attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction and its alleged sponsorship of terrorism.
These are issues repeatedly rejected by the Islamic Republic as baseless and unfounded except that Tehran opposes the Middle East peace process. There was a time when the Islamic Republic was the only government to oppose the U.S. mediated peace process.
Now, the entire Arab League and several other leading countries in the world oppose the Middle East peace process. Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat, who hurriedly stopped the armed struggle to sign the Oslo accords in 1993, is desperate seven years later, since nothing has happened except the formation of a Palestinian Authority', with no armed forces, comprehensive legal framework, or a capital as the seat of government.
Certain people in Iran simply ignore the real nature of the United States. Eager for renewed ties, they hope for diplomatic ties with this deceptive power. "Support by the United States is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man," said Nikita Khrushchev.