Barack Obama’s Persian New Year message to the leaders and people of Iran appears to have had a significant impact in Tehran. That much was clear by the speed with which Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, responded. Obama’s call for a “new beginning” was released early Friday morning, and Khamenei answered, unusually quickly, in a live televised address on Saturday that offered the most detailed response yet from Iran’s leader to a series of rhetorical gestures from the new U.S. Administration. The essence of Khamenei’s answer was that it would take more than “changes in words” from Washington to turn a new page in the relationship.
