Encountering Mottaki & Rice

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Condi Rice didn't manage to break the ice at the Sharm el Sheikh conference. But Mottaki found some time to talk to me, and Rice went out of her way to take a question posed by an Iranian journalist.

I sense that the message in these gestures, for what it's worth, is that both sides well realize they need to be talking to each other. But they still aren't ready to overcome the decades of suspicion and establish a proper dialogue or re-establish formal diplomatic relations. That would entail the politcally bitter act of acknowledging and dealing with the legitimate overall interests of the other--for Washington, that includes American success in Iraq as well as Israel's security; for Tehran, it means U.S. recognition of Iran's 1979 revolution and of the Islamic Republic's key role in the Middle East.

Mohamad Nourolahi, a reporter for the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), and I arrived in Sharm el Sheikh separately but with the same idea: to interview the foreign minister/secretary of the other's country. I saw Nouralahi pleading with U.S. officials to arrange an interview with Rice, but it didn't work out.

I had better luck and you can read my interview with Mottaki on www.time.com. Maybe I had the advantage that Iran makes it is relatively easier for American journalists to visit Iran than vice-versa; so, in reaching Mottaki, I was able to push my request with someone in his entourage who I knew from Tehran. I had not met Mottaki himnself before, but he greeted me in a good humor. Saying goodbye after the interview, he wished me "all the best." In his concluding press conference before dozens of foreign journalists, Mottaki criticized the U.S.'s "arrogant" occupation for inflicting "pain and suffering" on Iraq, but in the TIME interview, he took a distinctly softer tone. The official Islamic Republic News Agency picked up the TIME interview in full Sunday, making it likely that it will front-page some Tehran newspapers Monday.

For his part, my Iranian colleague wouldn't take no for an answer. After Rice cut off questions at her own concluding press conference, Nourolahi raised such a fuss that Rice re-opened the floor. "Iranian question-yes," she said, acknowledging Nourolahi.

Here's how that exchange went, as transcribed by the State Department. I thought Rice was fairly conciliatory, as was Mottaki in my interview.

Nourolahi:

Thank you. Once the U.S. Government talked about the "axis of evil," but today U.S. public opinion shows that the -- maybe there is a necessity to change this policy on Iran. Don't you think that it's time for a change in policy towards Iran in your behavior? Thank you.

Rice:

Well, we have no desire to have difficult relations with anyone. There's a history with Iran that goes back now more than 27 years. It is also the case that we have no problem and no tension with -- from our point of view with the Iranian people.

Iran is a great culture. And it is a culture and a country that should play a positive role in the international community. We have a number of policy problems with the way that Iran is conducting its policies in international affairs. We have been here together to talk about how to stabilize Iraq and I sincerely hope that Iran will act in what it says is (inaudible) self-interest to stop the flow of arms to extremists who then use them to hurt our forces and innocent Iraqis. I hope that the Iranians' support for terrorism will cease. And certainly, we all hope that the day will come when Iranians, like people all over the world, can express themselves freely.

But let me just say, as to talking to Iran, we have been very clear that if Iran is prepared to accept the obligations that have been placed upon it by the international community, not by the United States but in Security Council Resolutions that represent the international community, to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities, so that the international community can be certain that Iran will not seek a nuclear weapon, we are prepared -- the United States -- to change 27 years of policy and engage with Iran on a broad range of issues, whatever is on anybody's mind.

But that is not a U.S. demand. That is a demand of the United Nations Security Council. So it's my hope that Iran will take that course, rather than the course of isolation. We will continue to work to reach out to the Iranian people. We have had the Iranian wrestling team -- the American wrestling team in Iran. We've had people from Iran who are specialists in disaster relief. We're going to continue those efforts. But there is a path ahead if the Iranian Government intends to take it.

--By Scott MacLeod/Sharm el Sheikh