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U.S.’s establishing ties with Iranian spiritual leader is opportunity to stabilize U.S.-Iran relations

Politics Materials 2 February 2009 18:39 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 2 / Trend , D.Ibrahimova/

Establishing ties with Iranian Spiritual Leader Ali Khomenei, but not with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejat may be the first step to normalize relations between the United States and Iran.

"I think that sending the letter is an important and necessary next step in the development of constructive relations between Iran and the United States," U.S. Expert on Islam John Voll told Trend .

U.S. President Barack Obama stated his intention to cooperate with Iran, if Tehran cancels developing nuclear program, as Washington doubts on its peace character. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejat said that cooperation will be possible if Washington apologizes to Tehran.

"Persons who speak about changes should apologize to Iranians and seek to compensate a damage which they committed against Iran," Ahmadinejat said in his television interview.

On Jan. 29, The Guardian wrote that Washington is preparing a letter to the Iranian Spiritual Leader. But Obama's administration refuted the British media's report on Jan. 30.

Despite denial, observers believe that the spiritual leader has strong influence on the Iranian policy and establishing ties with him ay serve the first step in the Iranian-U.S. cooperation.

Relations between the U.S. and Iran were severed in 1980 and have not existed for almost 30 years. U.S. Ex-President George Bush Jr. named Iran as "evil axis" regime which sponsors terrorism and develops mass annihilation weapons in his address to the congress on Jan. 29 in 2002.

Ali Khamenei was the Iranian spiritual leader in 1989 and supervises over the authorities' all key leverages, including courts, army, as well as media. He appoints heads of juridical systems, state radio and television.

Khamenei supervises over the Supreme Guide comprising 12 members (directly or indirectly appointed by Khamanei) and possessing the right to veto the parliament's decision and examine candidates' reliability in elections, Iranian Carnegie Endowment Centre Expert Karim Sadjadpour's report said.

The Iranian spiritual leader's powers were expanded after amending the Iranian Constitution in 1989. Under the Article 110 of the constitution, the spiritual leader specifies the Iranian government's policy.

Khamenei is the highest political authority in Iran and any change in Iranian policies toward the United States ultimately must be approved by him, Georgetown University's Professor Voll told Trend via e-mail.

Second reason to send a letter to the Iranian spiritual leader is that Iran is moving toward Presidential elections in June and it is not clear that the current President will be re-elected, the expert said. "If President Ahmadinejad is not re-elected, then there could be a gap in the line of policy development if President Obama had only dealt with Iranian counterpart," Voll said.

The United States should directly apply to the Iranian spiritual leader to begin negotiations with the country, because there are some cases in the Iranian history when the Iranian government sought to begin negotiations with U.S., but spiritual leaders broke these attempts, Expert on Iran Mohsen Sazegara said.

For the first time it took place when Hashimi Rafsanjani was the Iranian parliament's speaker. However, Spiritual Leader Imam Khomeini stopped negotiations. Iranian President Muhammad Hatami (1997-2005) also sought to establish relations with Washington, but Ali Khamenei was against these negotiations.

One more means to establish ties between the U.S. and Iran may by address not to spiritual leader, but to Iranian people, Founder of Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University John L Esposito said.

"Speaking directly to the Iranian people through an open letter could be a more effective way of bypassing Ahmedinejad in reassuring the Iranian people that the Obama administration is pursuing a new approach in its foreign policy, one based on mutual understanding, respect and interests" Esposito told Trend via e-mail.

It is untimely to speak about success of this event, until U.S. is waiting for new presidential elections in Iran, Chairman of Scientific-Research Centre on Iranian Studies in Washington Sazegara told Trend in a telephone conversation.

"We still do not know all that much about the Obama approach to Iran nor what the response from the Supreme Leader might be or whether President Ahmedinejad will somehow inject himself into the process and if so, how he will react," Esposito told Trend .

Success of a letter depends on several points, U.S Expert on Middle East Marina Ottaway told Trend via e-mail.

"First, what the letter specifically says and what kind of behavior changes it will indicate, second it will also depend on how Iran decides to reply, whether it shows openness to move forward from the freeze in relations of the last thirty years or it takes a hardline position," she said.

"As the expression goes, it takes two to tango," Ottaway added.

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