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WASHINGTON & NEW YORK (Islam Online & AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, the first Iranian head of state to visit the U.S. since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said Wednesday the United Nations should treat all members equally and not yield to the "quest of power." Khatami's remarks to more than 150 heads of state and government gathered in the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the UN Millennium Summit appeared to be a reference to his views on U.S. dominance of world affairs. "Our task today is to transform the logic of international relations distancing it from the logic of power," Khatami said. "I declare before this house that nations can no longer be excluded or marginalized on political, cultural and economic pretexts," he said. "The world belongs to all its inhabitants, no double-standard, national or international, can ever be accepted in the contemporary world," he said. "The time has come to call upon the world not to yield to the quest of power but to opt for dialogue and ultimately for compassion, love and spirituality," Khatami also said. Khatami was due to have addressed the Council Wednesday afternoon, according to the official schedule, but was switched to speak earlier, for U.S. President Bill Clinton to hear his address. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright attended an address by Khatami at the Iranian-sponsored "Dialogue Among Nations" event on the sidelines of the summit. A senior U.S. official said Albright had found the speech "thought-provoking and interesting" but gleaned from it no new signs the Islamic republic wanted to improve ties with the United States. Albright's decision to attend the event followed landmark meetings last week in New York between Iranian parliament speaker Mehdi Karubi and senior U.S. lawmakers. Albright herself did not speak at the event and left the Khatami speech without comment. In his address Tuesday, Khatami called for the nations of the world to embrace dialogue for the sake of averting hostility, speaking only generally of the need for Eastern and Western civilizations and cultures to speak and compare notes, but made no specific mention of the U.S.
Adding, "dialogue is not easy. Even more difficult is to prepare and open up vistas upon one's inner existence to others [but] believing in dialogue paves the way for vivacious hope - the hope to live in a world permeated by virtue, humility and love, and not merely by the rein of economic indices and destructive weapons." But despite making the special effort to represent Washington at the Iranian-sponsored "Dialogue Among Nations," one senior U.S. official was reported to have said that no significant breakthroughs have occurred yet, alluding that the Islamic Republic of Iran indicated no new signs to improve ties with the U.S. But U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan later noted Albright's presence at the address, telling reporters it was "a very good signal" for the future of bilateral ties between the two nations. Rapprochement between Iran and the United States "is something I want to see," Annan said. "Nations isolating themselves is no solution." The United States and Iran broke off ties following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Tehran and the subsequent taking of hostages at the U.S. embassy there. Washington is keen to establish official contacts with Iran but has thus far been rebuffed in its attempt to engage the Islamic republic, which it accuses of being a state sponsor of terrorism. Just before leaving Iran, Khatami dismissed the probability of relations with the United States quickly returning to normal, and criticized Washington's policies toward the Islamic Republic. Iran wants the United States to lift all sanctions against it, especially oil-related sanctions, and to release frozen Iranian assets, before it will consider normalizing relations. Albright announced earlier this year an easing of sanctions against Iran, lifting import bans on several luxury goods such as caviar, pistachios and carpets. While U.S.-Iranian cultural and sports relations are good, and Khatami supporters seeking reform want dialogue with the United States, hardline conservatives favorable to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei oppose it. |
"We should listen in earnest to what other cultures offer, by relying on profound human experiences we can seek new ways for human life," said Khatami. 
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