Tehran, March 20: Twelve months ago US President Barack Obama’s historic new year message to Iran was meant to usher in a new era of relations between the two arch-foes, but since then ties between them have plummeted.
What had been touted as a new chapter between Washington and Tehran after three decades of animosity has developed into a tense stand-off, with Obama pushing for fresh sanctions amid Iranian defiance over its nuclear programme.
“Obama’s message to Iran and to Iran’s leader (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei did open a new channel, but the extremists in his administration and pressure from Israel has weakened the possibility of a dialogue,” analyst Mohammad Saleh Sedghian said.
After Obama’s 2009 message marking Nowrouz, which this year is on Sunday, Iranian and US officials met in The Hague at an international conference on Afghanistan.
Although US-Iran contacts were not built on, the US House of Representatives this year overwhelmingly approved a resolution wishing Iranians and Iranian Americans a “prosperous new year” — the first of its kind.
And on Friday former US presidential hopeful John Kerry offered his best wishes to Iranian Americans, saying in a statement “Nowrouz symbolises a time of renewal and hope.”
“We all should take a moment to reflect on the shared humanity that ties us together. May this new year bring you peace and prosperity,” said Kerry, who chairs the Senate foreign relations committee.
Tehran’s pursuit of uranium enrichment and a lack of direct US initiatives to follow up Obama’s message created the current situation in which US officials tour the globe seeking support for further sanctions, say analysts.
American officials have, to a large extent, convinced Iran’s long-time nuclear partner Russia to back sanctions, but China — a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council — remains steadfast in opposing this.
Iranian officials blame Washington for failing to follow up on Obama’s message, which they say could have included steps such as easing existing sanctions.
“If they want Iranians to have a happy Nowrouz, they should stop plotting against the Iranian people, stop laying traps for Iranian nationals and they should free Iranian citizens they are holding so they can spend Nowrouz with their families,” foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.
Iran says 11 of its citizens are being held in US jails, including a nuclear scientist who reportedly went missing last year in Saudi Arabia.
Washington has also expressed frustration in recent months, saying Obama’s diplomatic feelers have not been reciprocated.
The United States has criticised Tehran over its nuclear programme and human rights record, especially since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June.
Obama’s plan to engage Iran had “a profound impact on Iran internally, but an indiscernible impact on Iran’s external policies,” analyst Karim Sadjadpour of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in Washington.
“The engagement failed to moderate Iran’s external policies, what it intended to do, but it succeeded in widening Iran’s deep internal political divides,” he said, hinting at the opposition movement.
Ahmadinejad is Iran’s most vocal leader, but Khamenei formulates external policies, and he blames “wicked” Washington and London for the post-election unrest.
Diplomacy between Washington and Tehran froze after last September’s disclosure of Iran’s second uranium enrichment plant.
While Tehran maintains it revealed the site’s existence to the UN nuclear watchdog on time, world powers claim there was a delay. Obama took the lead in criticising Tehran for building the facility.
Tension further heightened over a UN-brokered nuclear fuel deal for a Tehran research reactor and over Iran’s decision to enrich uranium to 20 percent, edging closer to the 93 percent required to make an atom bomb.
Iran denies wanting to manufacture nuclear weapons, arguing that it needs to generate nuclear energy for its growing population which is already dependant on importing 40% of its gasoline needs.
Iran also cites the need to develop nuclear technology for medical purposes to treat its cancer patients.
“Today, Iran’s refusal to reciprocate US engagement efforts has exposed Tehran as the intransigent actor in the equation, not Washington,” Sadjadpour said.
But Sedghian thinks more efforts are required from both parties “in order to create confidence, which is very crucial.
“Iran’s leadership should give assurances to the US and the West that it could be a reliable partner for them in solving regional issues,” he said.
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since 1979 Iranian revolution, which toppled the ruthless US-backed dictator, the shah.
Obama had admitted US involvement in the 1953 coup which overthrew the democratically elected Iranian government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
It was the first time a serving US president had publicly admitted American involvement in the coup.
The US Central Intelligence Agency, with British backing, masterminded the coup after Mossadegh nationalised the oil industry.
For many Iranians, the coup demonstrated duplicity by the United States, which presented itself as a defender of freedom but did not hesitate to use underhand methods to get rid of a democratically elected government to suit its own economic and strategic interests.
—Agencies