The United States administration has abandoned hopes it can work with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist allies within the Iranian government and is shifting its focus to appealing directly to democracy supporters amongst the Iranian people, Bush administration officials said, according to The Washington Post.
In its Tuesday report, the newspaper said that the aforesaid policy change, which scuttles a five-year effort in which Washington attempted to explore various ways to work with Khatami and encourage a reform agenda in the Islamic Republic, follows a thorough review within the Bush administration over whether to adopt a harder stance toward a government the US President branded earlier this year part of an "axis of evil".
According to a high-level administration official, Bush has concluded with his senior foreign policy advisers that Khatami and his supporters in the government "are too weak, ineffective and not serious about delivering on their promises" to transform Iranian society. Instead, the official conveyed, "We have made a conscious decision to associate with the aspirations of Iranian people. We will not play, if you like, the factional politics of reform versus hard-line."
Bush signaled the change publicly in a strongly worded presidential statement in which he hailed large pro-democracy street demonstrations in Iran. The shift cheered foreign policy experts who had called for a tougher approach toward Tehran and was a setback for the US State Department, which had been the forefront of efforts to engage the Khatami leadership.
For his part, Khatami voiced fears over the U.S “words of war” on Tuesday. "We live in a very frightening situation today. We have witnessed that war has never been so much promoted in the U.S." Khatami told a news conference. "I believe the behavior of the U.S. today is neither in the interest of the U.S. nor in the interest of today's world," said Khatami. "This erroneous logic as to whoever is not with us is against us cannot be accepted," he said.
Khatami, who recently threatened to quit if opponents stymied his reforms, told a news conference in Malaysia he would stay in office as long people wanted him. "I hope that up until the time that the nation wants me, I hope that I will be of service to our nation and to move in that respect," he said. "We have a lot of work to do... We accept there may be different views and opinions... Democracy requires diversity of opinions," he said via an interpreter.
Khatami arrived in Malaysia late on Sunday for a four-day visit intended to strengthen relations with the Southeast Asian nation. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
