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Copyright © 1994-98, by the Middle East Data Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
A delegation of senior U.S. officials in New York for the UN General Assembly meetings on Sept. 22 held a surprise meeting with newly-appointed Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi in the UN delegates dining room, sources present at the meeting told The Iran Brief.
The meeting, unannounced by either side, was informal and appears not to have been orchestrated - at least on the U.S. side. "The annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York has traditionally been the venue for unofficial meetings of this sort," a U.S. source said. "The State Department has issued new instructions not to avoid encounters with Iranian officials," the source added.
While no one will comment officially on the encounter, one U.S. official noted that the U.S. policy on contacts with Iranian officials had not changed. "Contacts are not to be avoided if they occur within the framework of normal course of business in multi-lateral fora such as the UN," the official said. "But this is not a meeting, or a bilateral exchange." Nevertheless, only two years earlier, Secretary of State Warren Christopher studiously avoided meeting with Foreign Minister Ali Velayati in Damascus. And other top officials, including Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, have displayed annoyance when Iranian officials have turned up in the same foreign capitals they were visiting.
"It's clear that the Clinton administration is favorably disposed toward hearing a message from Tehran," the source familiar with the New York meeting said. Among those U.S.,officials saidto have worked toward setting up this first meeting are former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Schifter, and former U.S. ambassador Ron Neumann. According to knowledgeable sources, they had earlier tried to arrange for a delegation of former Assistant Secretaries of State, including Richard Murphy and Robert Pelletreau, to visit Tehran, to pave the way for a high-level official exchange.
In Tehran, the semi-official media has not changed its propaganda assault against the U.S. - with particularly vituperative remarks reserved for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her mid-September Middle East tour. And prior to coming to New York, Kharrazi went out of his way in Tehran to insist he would make "no concessions" to U.S. demands concerning terrorism of the Islamic Republic's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, as we reported last month.
But on the U.S. side, there appears to be a new tone, if not a real policy shift. Iran-watchers in Washington note that Albright has studiously avoided characterizing the Islamic Republic as a "rogue regime," the favored epithet of Warren Christopher, and has "cautiously welcomed" the election of Mohammad Khatami as president.
A top Israeli official following U.S. policy toward Iran agreed. "We've been seeing Mrs. Albright dabbling in Irani affairs. The real question is whether the Iranis themselves have any intention of backing off on terrorism or weapons of mass destruction. With Ayatollah Khamene'i still firmly in charge, we see absolutely no signs that is about to occur, either now or in the future."
Until now, the only official exchanges between the U.S. and Iran have been through the respective Interests Sections in Tehran and Washington, DC, which exchange diplomatic notes - mainly U.S. protests over Iran's support for international terrorism - and at the U.S.-Iran Claims Tribunal in the Hague which is still laboring to resolve lawsuits left over from the early days of the Revolution.
As can be seen from the President's latest communication to Congress on Iran (see below), the cautious U.S. opening toward Tehran does not appear to include any proffer to waive the current sanctions legislation. But it comes at a time when Israel, too, has also been softening its rhetorical hostility toward the Islamic Republic, as we reported last month. All eyes are now turned to Europe, to see if the European Union will succeed in convincing Tehran to accept the simultaneous return of all EU ambassadors following their recall in April to protest Iranian government involvement in the Mykonos killings. But for such a gesture to lead to an improvement in relations, it would have to accompanied by "real, measurable" Iranian commitments to eliminate its support for foreign terrorism, U.S. officials said. And if Hezbollah activities in Lebanon are any measure of this, the Islamic Republic seems intent on pursuing its role as regional trouble-maker for some time to come.