US ties may be possible one day: Iran leader

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

TEHERAN - Iran’s supreme leader made clear on Thursday the time had not yet arrived to restore relations with the United States, the Islamic state’s arch foe, but suggested it may happen one day.

“Not having relations with America is one of our main policies but we have never said this relationship should be cut forever,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in the central city of Yazd, state television reported.

“Establishing this relationship now (would be) harmful for us and naturally we shouldn’t follow it,” he said. “Certainly, the day when having relations with America is useful for the nation I will be the first one to approve this relationship.”

The United States cut ties with Tehran shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The two countries are now sharply at odds over Tehran’s disputed atomic ambitions and also disagree over who is to blame for the violence in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2008/January/middleeast_January38.xml§ion=middleeast

[ohio2007]

1. promising comment waiting for a US reply but

I doubt there will be another Jimmy Carter in the WH they can "tie" up -- errr --- establish ties with again .

Wonder if he would to talk to a Muslim if one occupied the W H ?

[harmonicon]

2. If only politicians in the US could say the same - that's right folks, we've out-whacko'd IRAN!

Would relations between our two countries be a lot better if we could just admit that maybe, someday, we'll at least be civil? I mean, without talk of "regime change", war or some sort of bombing that's in some semantic way, not war?

[Javaman]

3. AKA US ties possible after moron* leaves. nt

[kineneb]

4. considering that the largest Iranian ex-pat community is in the US

and mostly in SoCal, someday the countries are bound to re-establish diplomatic relations. The generation of the Islamic revolutionaries is aging, and the huge population of the under-30s think the whole idea is dumb. Now we just need to quit trying to overthrow governments and mind our own business. This whole mess started in 1953 and won't be over until all the generations involved are ancient or dead. Alas for the rest of us, both here and in Iran.

Incidentally, I used to have an Iranian passport, before the revolution. I'm sure Agent Mikey has known all about it for years. Tehran is beautiful in the winter, under a foot of snow. Look it up in Google; there are a bunch of slide shows and stills of Iran- it is not just a desert, like Iraq.

[badgervan]

5. Right On

I think the younger generation here feels the same... the whole idea of hating a nation for political and misleading reasons is dumb. Another reason to love the internet: you read Iraqi and Irani blogs, and you find out that we have much more in common than The Decider and his neocon lieutenants/enablers will ever admit. The future can be a good one, but not with another Republican administration. I think this coming election is going to be the biggest landslide in our country's history.