U.S. congrats Iranian team

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1997

Briefer: JAMES B. FOLEY

QUESTION: A lot of people seem very excited about the fact that the United States soccer team is going to be playing Iran in the world finals. Does this do any damage to dual containment?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I wouldn't want to make light of a serious subject, although I'm tempted to because your question invites me to make light of it. I'm not aware that there was an Iraqi soccer or football team involved in the preliminaries, leading up to the world soccer finals. But clearly, sport is an arena which brings people together all over the world, and we support our team and wish them well in the World Cup this summer. And we congratulate both teams, including the Iranian team, on qualifying for the World Cup finals.

QUESTION: The US Soccer Federation suggested, tongue in or out of cheek, that maybe this could follow in the footsteps of the Ping-Pong diplomacy with China. Do you see anything positive, actually?

MR. FOLEY: I couldn't speculate on that, but clearly, in terms of the people-to-people dimension of the relationship between Iran and the United States, there has never been a problem in that area. And this goes back, I think, to the early part of this century, when Americans were involved in development and charitable work in Iran.

It is most unfortunate that, in the wake of the hostage crisis, that we've had an interruption in the excellent relations that have existed between our two peoples -- principally, in our view, because of certain very dangerous and destabilizing policies of the Iranian Government, which we believe need to be addressed, and need to be addressed in any authorized dialogue that we might have one day with representatives of the Iranian Government.

But in terms of the relationship between the peoples, it ought to be good. And if this soccer match is a sign of our ability to deal with each other, at least in this one area, in a civilized and positive way, I think that's something we could applaud.

Related links

* THE IRANIAN WebGuide Sports section
* Iran News
* Complete list of Iranian online media
* Cover stories
* Who's who

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