Recently, two of the most notable Iran experts in the US, Vali Nasr and Ray Takeyh, published an article in Foreign Affairs, advocating renewed American engagement with Iran. They argued, among other things, that the US and Iran have many shared objectives in Iraq, and that the US remains the only country able to militarily balance Iran in the region since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. “Containing Iran today would mean promoting Sunni extremism — a self-defeating proposition for Washington,” they noted. The only solution to dealing with a belligerent Iran under these untoward circumstances, they concluded, was engagement: “If Iran enjoyed favourable security and commercial ties with the US and was at ease in its region, it might restrain its nuclear ambitions.”

Nasr and Takeyh, both Iranian-Americans, are reportedly advising Hillary Clinton in her presidential bid. It is therefore surprising that the boldest statements about Iran on the campaign trail are emanating not from Clinton, but from her rival Barack Obama. Obama said in an interview in October that he would engage in “aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran, although he has tempered this sentiment at other venues.

Last week Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that he would be willing to support renewed diplomatic relations with the US. “I would be the first one to support these relations,” he said. “We never said the severed relations were forever.” He added, though, that now was not the time for a reconciliation as it would make Iran more vulnerable to American espionage. Yet his statement is a clear indication that the Iranians are willing to engage the US and turn a page on a quarter century of mutual hostility.

... contd.