What Obama should have said to Iran
Posted: Friday, March 20, 2009

By Ayinde
March 20, 2009
Updated: March 22, 2009

On March 19th 2009, the US President, Barack Obama, sent a video message to Iran as they celebrate their New Year's holiday, Nowruz. The message, which was also posted on YouTube, maintained the style of rhetoric that Obama is noted for. The US President is calling on Iran to change while the US is not taking responsibility for its role in the deterioration of its relations with Iran or offering anything substantial to indicate its willingness to change. I expect the Iranian leaders to welcome the overtures on one hand, but on the other, to reject them until the US demonstrates a change in its policies in the Middle East.

Obama's address to Iran should have gone something like this:

To the people and leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,

Best wishes to you during and after your celebration of Nowruz. I hope the new year brings better relations between our two nations. In honor of this occasion I will be offering tangible evidence of our efforts to foster better relations.

Our nation has done yours countless wrongs over the decades and for this I am sorry. I want to let you know that you have very good reasons to be distrustful of my overtures but I hope after your leaders and I meet face to face we can work out appropriate reparations which the US will like some time to pay due to our current economic crisis.

During my administration the US aims to get rid of our Weapons of Mass Destruction and wish you do the same. We invite you to inspect our facilities as we destroy them but we will understand if you are hesitant to reciprocate. We hope you would do likewise after you are convinced of our sincerity. As a gesture of goodwill, all sanctions that have been imposed and upheld by the US government are to be lifted immediately.

We are ready to be a transparent administration and pledge to cease all covert and overt undermining of your government.

In addition, the US will no longer assist Israel while Israel continues to illegally occupy Palestinian land and kill innocent Palestinians. We will recognise Hamas and other similar bodies as resistance movements and the US will immediately remove them from our terrorist list.

This address to you, where I am promising to redress many wrongs, is the first of many amends the US would like to make to other nations that have been harmed by our transgressions; this is my work during the course of my administration.

Choosing Nowruz to send this message is symbolic of our willingness to recognize and respect not only the sovereignty of Iran but also your cultural and religious heritage.

Thank you, and Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak.

Related News:

Why Iran needs a different approach from Obama March 26, 2009

Iran's supreme leader dismisses Obama overtures March 21, 2009

Iran's Khamenei rebuffs Obama overture March 21, 2009 

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