The United States on Wednesday made its first significant overture to Iran 20 years after its support to the despotic Shah engendered Ayatollah Khameini's 1979 Islamic revolution that changed the geopolitics of the region.

In a speech on Wednesday at the Asia Society in New York that US officials acknowledged as a major policy initiative towards Tehran, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright offered to "develop with the Islamic Republic, when it is ready, a road map leading to normal relations."

"Obviously, two decades of mistrust cannot be erased overnight. The gap between us remains wide. But it is time to test the possibilities for bridging this gap," Albright said in her address.

Such an offer would have been unthinkable this time last year. But Washington has quietly begun warming up to Teheran followingthe surprise election last year to presidency of Mohammed Khatemi, who is supported by the more liberal forces in Iran. (In fact, there is potential for some sports diplomacy here. The US plays Iran in a World Cup soccer match on Sunday. An American wrestling team that toured Iran earlier this year was given a warm welcome.)

The US has, however, been proceeding cautiously, in part to avoid giving the impression that it is stoking a domestic fire since Khatemi is locked in an intense power struggle against the more militant leadership in Teheran led by Ayatollah Khameini.

But notwithstanding a few caveats and lack of any specific initiative, Albright dished out plenty of high praise for Islam, Iran and Iranian President Khatemi in an address that barely touched on China, India, Indonesia and other Asian hotspots and instead dealt mostly with Teheran a sure indication of a major rethink in the administration about its policy vis-a-vis a country condemned till recently as a `pariah' state.

Responding toKhatemi's speech last year in which he praised the "great American people" and said "a society intending to reach development cannot succeed without understanding Western civilisation," Albright declared Americans would do well to learn to understand Eastern civilisation and Islamic civilisation, as she tried to demonstrate that the US was not anti-Islam.

"Islam is the fastest-growing religious faith in the United States. We respect deeply its moral teachings and its role as a source of inspiration and instruction for hundreds of millions of people around the world," she said. Albright also praised Khatemi, saying he deserves respect because he is the choice of the Iranian people, while noting that the Iranian leader had also publicly condemned terrorism and tempered its support to the more radical forces in the Middle-East. "If these views are translated into a rejection of terrorism as a tool of Iranian statecraft, it would do much to dispel the concerns of the international community from Germany to thePersian Gulf, and from Argentina to Algeria," she said.

US officials have been quoted in the media here as saying they have opened new channels of communication with Teheran, but despite Khatemi's overtures to the West and Albright's response, Iran has been publicly rebuffing Washington.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.