Iran's UN mission has dismissed the vision laid out by a US official for the future of Tehran-Washington relations, saying that history has shown that the United States does not pursue rapprochement with the Islamic Republic with good intentions.
In a letter to the New York Times published on April 11, Alireza Miryousefi, counselor and head of the Press Office at Iran's mission to the United Nations, responded to recent comments by Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran and a senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
On April 8, Hook claimed in an op-ed for the same newspaper that the Islamic Republic has experienced "40 years of failure and mismanagement" and said it should abandon "the policies that have kept the people of Iran and the United States apart since 1979".
"America stands ready to engage an Iranian government with mutual respect, in pursuit of mutual interests," he wrote, adding that Iran has to behave like a "normal country" in order to make this opening possible, help normalize ties and enjoy the benefits that would follow.
The former director of the US State Department's Office of Policy Planning also accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism, oppressing its people and arbitrarily detaining dual citizens, which allegations have been denied by Tehran.
"The peoples of the United States and Iran should have diplomatic ties. We can foresee a new American Embassy in Tehran issuing visas to tourists, business travelers and teachers. There should also be direct flights from Tehran to New York or Los Angeles. Before the revolution, America was Iran's second-largest trading partner. It should be again. Before the revolution, 50,000 Iranian students were studying in American universities."
Hook added that renewed relations would open the door to "tremendous" opportunities and could solve many problems for the Iranian people, including Tehran's air pollution, earthquake-related issues and water problems.
Wishful Thinking
However, Miryousefi did not welcome the olive branch offered by the US official and questioned the US motive.
"After almost two decades since the United States’ invasions in the region, at least one of Mr. Hook's bright promises for a future Iran has not been made with either Afghanistan or Iraq: There are no direct flights between New York and Baghdad or Kabul, and President [Donald] Trump has to travel there under cover of darkness at midnight. Why is that?"
He said Hook's protestations that he would like nothing more than to open an embassy and facilitate travel for Iranians will not be taken seriously by the Iranian people, especially as one of the first measures of the Trump administration was the Muslim travel ban, which includes all Iranians who can no longer travel to the United States.
"Concerning his proclaimed readiness to start new talks, a recent survey suggests that Iranians are cynical about any effort at new negotiations with an unpredictable and untrustworthy American president," Miryousefi wrote.
He also rejected accusations of lack of democracy in the Islamic Republic, saying, "Iran today is a 100-year-old democracy whose population's participation in the 2017 presidential election was more than 70%: a full, competitive election in a region where real elections are scarce."
The long-tense relations between Tehran and Washington took a turn for the worse last May when Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, reached before he took office, and reimposed sanctions.
Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has slapped down a US offer of direct talks, arguing that the Americans are not reliable and renege on their commitments.
