Most Iranians are keen to mend relations with the US, it seems:
Iranian voters are more accustomed to hearing their politicians chant “Death to America” – but ahead of next week’s presidential election the issue of relations with the U.S. has been turned on its head.
It is an ironic shift for the Islamic Republic, founded on the dogma of resisting “Zionist-American conspiracies” and priding itself on standing up to the “Great Satan.”
But, as one Iranian analyst pointed out, “for most Iranians the breaking off of relations with the United States is the main cause of their problems, and many people want to give their next president a mandate to finally resolve the issue.”
Iran’s regime has tried but failed to stem public calls for reconciliation, most recently in 2002 when it jailed a group of opinion pollsters who published a shock survey saying that three-quarters of the population wanted to see dialogue with the United States resume.
The poll was particularly embarrassing for the regime, given that one of the organizers was Abbas Abdi – a leading player in the seizing of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1980 and the holding of its diplomats for 444 days, the crisis that prompted the severing of ties. […]
The main reformist candidate and campaign outsider, Mostafa Moin, has proposed a plan to progressively resume dialogue without condition.
The fact that he has not been arrested is a sign in itself that the mood has changed.
As with all Iranian matters of state, however, the final say rests with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – perceived as being opposed to any change in the status quo.
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