Iran today is a 100-year-old democracy whose population’s participation in the 2017 presidential election was more than 70 percent: a full, competitive election in a region where real elections are scarce.

In addition, after almost two decades since the United States invasions in the region, at least one of Mr. Hook’s bright promises for a future Iran has not been made with either Afghanistan or Iraq: There are no direct flights between New York and Baghdad or Kabul, and President Trump has to travel there under cover of darkness at midnight. Why is that?

Mr. Hook’s protestations that he would like nothing more than to open an embassy and facilitate travel for Iranians won’t be taken seriously by the Iranian people, especially as one of the first measures of the Trump administration was the Muslim travel ban, which includes all Iranians who can no longer travel to the United States.

Concerning his proclaimed readiness to start new talks, a recent survey suggests that Iranians are cynical about any effort at new negotiations with an unpredictable and untrustworthy American president.

Alireza Miryusefi for the New York Times
New York 
The writer is counselor and head of the Press Office at Iran’s Mission to the United Nations.