Payman Arabshahi's April Fools news
Iran Eases Import Restrictions in Overture to U.S.
By Jonathan Schwartz
TEHRAN, April 1, 2000 (DPA) - In a major overture to the U.S., the
Iranian government offered on Saturday to let in a select category of U.S.
foodstuff and household items, promised to work harder to settle financial
claims and recognized grievances against Iran's U.S. policy since 1979.
The Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in his first televised press
conference on the U.S. since reformists won last February's parliamentary
elections, said that he had been given the "green light" by Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to seek an opening to the U.S. "in
line with Iran's national interests", and to break down the "wall
of distrust" that has divided the two countries since the 1979 Islamic
revolution.
"I call on the U.S. to join in writing a new chapter in our shared
history. Let us be open about our differences and strive to overcome them.
Let us acknowledge our common interests and strive to advance them,"
he told the Iranian people in a live TV broadcast.
Khatami's gestures are in response to increasingly frequent U.S. confessions
of wrong-doing against Iran and pleas for opening government-to-government
talks with Iran -- Washington's aim since Khatami won election in 1997
with a reformist agenda.
But in their initial reactions, U.S. officials said the speech had both
positive and negative aspects.
The centerpiece of the initiative is ending 1981 import restrictions
on U.S. products such as peanuts, peanut butter, portabello mushrooms,
marshmellows, breakfast cereals, and waterbeds.
"Second, Iran will explore ways to remove unnecessary impediments
to increased contacts between American and Iranian scholars, professionals,
artists, athletes and non-governmental organizations," he added, saying
that U.S. women for instance would be granted permission to travel without
the mandatory Hijab or Islamic dress in the country.
"Third, Iran is prepared to increase efforts with the U.S. aimed
at settlement of outstanding legal claims between our two countries,"
he said.
The claims settlement process, sometimes referred to as "unfreezing
Iranian assets," takes place through a tribunal in The Hague. It includes
reciprocal claims for diplomatic property and Iranian claims for weapons
paid for by the deposed Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and never delivered.
"Neither the U.S., nor we, can forget the past," Khatami
said. ``It has scarred us both, but especially Iran.''
In that vein, Khatami called the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran
in 1979 regrettable.
At the same time he also criticized the U.S. as a long time supporter
of terrorism, recalling recent examples of support for the Afghan Taliban,
Nicaraguan Contras, mining of Nicaragua's harbors, shootdown of an Iranian
passenger jet, and air and missile strikes against Libya, Iraq, and the
Sudan.
Khatami also called the U.S. "highly biased" in its approach
to a lasting Mideast peacemaking, accusing it of double standards in its
policy towards Arabs and Israelis, and therefore not aiming for what he
called "true peace", but rather a "one-sided settlement
in favor of one party".
The Iranian president also accused the U.S. as bent on acquiring weapons
of mass destruction, recalling recent reports that the U.S. is modernizing
thousands of its nuclear warheads, and blasting the U.S. Senate for not
ratifying the nuclear test ban treaty.
James Foley, the U.S. state department spokesperson welcomed the easing
of import restrictions and said Washington would respond by removing 384%
import duties on Iranian pistachios.
But he criticized other aspects of the speech, saying that Khatami had
not done enough to ensure rapid progress toward relations.
"These steps, important and refreshing as they may be, are insufficient
to make a quick and drastic change in the state of affairs," he said.
"We all know that fancy mushrooms, corn flakes, and waterbeds are
not exactly household items in Iran, and are inaccessible to a broad segment
of the Iranian nation" he said.
However he expressed satisfaction at Iran's decision to import marshmellows
and peanuts, saying they could be used in long hours along campground fires
for a "dialogue of civilizations" between U.S. and Iranian scholars
and officials who have nothing better to do in their life than talk.
The Iranian president himself is said to have already placed his own
order for ten pounds of marshmellows from the U.S. based online grocer
pinkdot.com.
Meanwhile in Tehran, a spokesperson for the Mushroom and Cauliflower
Growers of Iran (MUSHACIRAN) criticized Khatami for lifting the import
restrictions. Prices for Iranian mushrooms in the Tehran commodity exchange
plummeted to a 5 year low following Khatami's press conference.
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