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Iran's Leaders Divided on U.S.
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Iranian officials contend that many overtures toward the United States have gone unanswered. In 2001, Iran provided information for U.S. troops fighting the Taliban, an Iranian enemy. "In return, we were labeled as part of the 'axis of evil,' " Kharrazi said. "And in 2007, President Ahmadinejad wrote a direct letter to George W. Bush, which was completely ignored by the U.S."
The roots of Iran's animosity toward the United States run much deeper than the country's 1979 Islamic revolution. In 1953, the CIA organized a coup d' etat against the democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, who two years earlier had nationalized Iran's oil, angering Britain, whose state oil company had a long-running lease to exploit Iran's oil.
The great-grandson of Mossadegh said he was proud of what his ancestor had done for Iran. "My great-grandfather led a movement for decolonization," Ali Mossadegh said, showing black-and-white pictures of Mossadegh pleading Iran's case for oil nationalization before the U.N. Security Council. The coup led to absolute rule by an American ally, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, until he was overthrown in 1979.
The younger Mossadegh saw no political use for an American interests section now. "First, an apology for the coup of 1953 would be an important step to restore relations between both countries," he said.
When Abbas Abdi climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, he had that same kind of anger in mind, he said. "Try and look at it from the Iranian point of view: They had really hurt us, so we had to hurt them back," Abdi said, referring to the takeover.
He said he did not feel responsible for the diplomatic stalemate that followed. "It was an opportunity for the United States to get on with our relations with a clean slate," Abdi said. "But things took a different course."
Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.
