KAMAL KHARRAZI MEETS US SENATOR JOSEPH BIDEN AT DAVOS
PARIS 25 Jan. (IPS) For the first time in 25 years, high-ranking officials representing "The Great Satan" and "The Evil State" met for 90 minutes, a meeting that an Iranian diplomat described as "ice breaker".
Mr. Kamal Kharrazi
, the Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister met Senator Joseph Biden, an influent member of the American Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a Swiss mountain resort where the world’s most influent businessmen, politicians, political analysts and leaders meet once a year.None of the two men answered questions from the hundreds of waiting journalists and the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry also would not take questions on the meeting, but Mr. Sa’id Raja’i Khorasani, a former Iranian Ambassador at the United Nations said Mr. Kharrazi had "certainly" the authorization from the Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i.
"In Iran it is not that a foreign affairs minister meets whomever he wanted, specially when it comes to an American official. In this case, Mr. Kharrazi should have had consulted and got proper authorization from Mr. Khameneh’i", Mr. Raja’i Khorasani told the Iranian Labour news agency ILNA.
Iranian analysts and Western diplomats said the meeting between Biden, the Senator that suggested boosting the power of Iranian media opposed to the Islamic Republic, proposing a 50 million US Dollars financial assistance, and Kharrazi is a first step in the long and bumpy road to normalization of relations between the two nations.
"This is a positive step, but not a decisive one. Restoration of ties needs few more steps to come, but would not take place in a short time ahead, so, one should not jump on foregone conclusions", Mr. Raja’i Khorasani commented.
For his part, Mr. Hooshang Amir Ahmadi, the Chairman of American-Iranian Council told the Prague-based Radio Farda that the meeting would prepare the way for further talks between Iranian and American lawmakers, as suggested by Mr. Biden last year, a proposal that was rejected immediately by Mr. Khameneh’I, who has the last word on every major issue.
The meeting confirms what Iran Press Service was first to disclose about the conservative’s "determination" of drinking their own "cup of poison" that is resumption of relations with the United States, tagged by Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as "The Great Satan".
"Worried about their survival, the Iranian ruling Ayatollahs have decided to normalize with Washington and needs the Majles for that purpose, hence their determination to secure the control of the next parliament in order to give the green light to open talks with Americans", well informed sources had explained to IPS.
Washington, that last January, awarded the Islamic Republic as an "Evil State" alongside Communist North Korea and the now toppled Ba’thist regime of Iraq, cut all relations with Iran after revolutionary students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on November 1979, keeping 55 American diplomats and staff as hostage for 444 days.
Years ago, when he was at the beginning of his first mandate as Speaker of the Majles, Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroobi had met six American lawmakers at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Thought it was Mr. Amir Ahmadi who arranged that meeting, but on his return to Tehran, Mr. Karrobi said he was surprised at the presence of American congressmen and termed the meeting as "accidental".
"That Biden and Kharrazi did not hide their meeting from journalists shows that the time of hide and seek and secret talks between Iranians and Americans is over", Mr. Amir ahmadi commented. ENDS IRAN US RELATIONS 25104