NOVANEWS
Days after members of Iran’s parliament welcomed a “parliamentary friendship” between the United States and Iran, deputy speaker of parliament and conservative politician Mohammad Reza Bahonar agreed that the formation of such a group is a positive step.
Bahonar said, “Parliamentary diplomacy between Iran and America must take shape before official diplomacy.” When asked if the formation of such a group were not a “red line,” he said that one of the weaknesses of the previous administration was that it did not use “public diplomacy,” and that “Official diplomacy has limitations that public diplomacy does not have. Public diplomacy can start with a soccer match, parliamentary consultations or lobbying.”
On the issue of lobbying, Bahonar added, “It’s possible to say that in the American congress, the Iranian lobby is not significant, but I believe that if we have five people there who support Iran — not that they believe in the system of the Islamic Republic, but they feel that their interests or their group’s interests lie in dealing with Iran — if we have this type of lobby, it is positive and not negative. Therefore, the administration must use public diplomacy.”
Bahonar added, however, that if the plan is not welcomed by the United States and “If Washington plans on pursuing a win-lose game in favor of itself, the previous direction will be repeated and we will pursue a win-lose game in favor of ourselves, which is defense of the heritage of the revolution.”
According to Etemaad, former parliament member Daryoush Ghanbari spoke to Khabar Online about Iran’s seventh parliament (2004), which initiated a similar parliamentary friendship group.
“The Supreme National Security Council at the time was not opposed to the formation of a parliamentary friendship group,” Ghanbari said. “But the extremists of the seventh parliament did not allow for the approval of this plan, which was presented by the Reformists of parliament.”
Al Monitor’s Back Channel blog reported yesterday that undersecretary Wendy Sherman and Iran’s Deputy foreign minister and nuclear negotiator held direct talks in Geneva. President Hassan Rouhani, former Presidents Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami and former officials have openly discussed the benefits and costs of better relations with the world.
At his 70th birthday party, Khatami said that if his idea for a “dialogue of civilizations” had been taken “more seriously by the companions of culture, education and religion and that if the painful cry for a coalition of peace had taken off and not gotten lost in … the maddening cry for a coalition for war … our situation and conditions would be better.” His comments made headlines on many opposition websites.
Yesterday, Rafsanjani also addressed the need for better relations with the world. He told a group of economic activists in the city of Kermanshah that economic problems will decrease if “the extremists allow us to have relations with the world.” Due to Rafsanjani’s website publishing an old interview in which he said that former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini opposed the “Death to America” chant, some in the crowd began to chant “Death to America.” However, according to video footage, his supporters praised Rafsanjani.
