accusing Ahmadinejad of attempting to undermine Western resolve to oppose Iran’s
alleged plans to build nuclear weapons (Iranian Nuclear Ambitions, p. 404).
In 2007 a slight thaw of sorts appeared to develop in U.S.-Iranian relations. In
March, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq met with a group of Iranians at a gathering of
countries neighboring Iraq. In early May, U.S. and Iranian ambassadors held face-
to-face meetings in Egypt at the UN-sponsored conference for the International
Compact with Iraq to try to find a way forward in Iraq. The ambassador held two
more rounds of talks in Baghdad in July and August, but no results were announced
as of mid-August 2007.
Following are excerpts from three documents: a news conference by Iranian presi-
dent Mohammad Khatami on March 27, 1997, as translated, six days after his
election as president of Iran; remarks on U.S.-Iranian relations by President Bill
Clinton at a White House dinner on April 12, 1999; and a speech by Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright to the American-Iranian Council in Washington, D.C.,
on March 17, 2000.DOCUMENT
Khatami on
U.S.-Iranian Relations
MAY27, 1997In the name of God, the compassionate and merciful, at the outset I would like to
extend my greetings to the journalists that are representatives of the mass media, exter-
nal and internal, from our country that are the ear, the tongue and the eye—the reli-
able ear, eye and tongue of the people....
And also I would like to welcome all the foreign journalists and the media repre-
sentatives who have come to our country to witness one of the glorious stages of our
determination of the destiny of our nation by themselves to witness the stability and
the strength of our nation and also their active, happy presence in this stage of our
country....
Whatever that has occurred is a unique opportunity for all of us. Our nation has
been able to regain its... identity in the light of the revolution. And has established
a system of the cultural religious values [based] upon its religion, that people do have
a major role in. And an example of that could be seen in the recent elections.
All these grandeurs of the presence of the people is definitely in the palm of the
late Iman Khomeini and also the understanding and the awakened conscience of our
people at this stage. And this great outcome which has been incarnated in the form
of the Islamic Republic of Iran shall continue its way under the leadership of His
Imminence Ayatollah Khamenei for years to come.
I am ready to answer to the questions of the journalists and the media....
398 IRAN