Tehran's charm offensive makes inroads

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HI27Ak02.html

Last week, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad made his second pilgrimage to the United Nations and conducted a whirlwind public diplomacy that not only put him in the media limelight but, more important, produced tangible results benefiting Iran, the United States and, indeed, the cause of world peace.

Unlike last year's trip, when neither the president nor his close advisers saw much need for diplomacy proper, this year was different. This was partly because Iran had since been referred to the Security Council, which has promised to invoke Chapter VII and take punitive measures against Iran if it fails to halt uranium-enrichment activities.

Seeking to defuse the potentially dangerous nuclear row, Ahmadinejad and his foreign-policy team have taken proactive steps to reassure the world of Iran's peaceful nuclear intentions, offering guarantees and, at the same time, emphasizing the role of a "powerful Iran" in regional stability.

Thus in his UN speech as well as in other speeches and interviews during his three-day stay in New York, including at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ahmadinejad defended Iran's nuclear rights, criticized double standards, and reiterated his offer of direct dialogue with US President George W Bush.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Ahmadinejad finally conceded that the Holocaust was a "historical reality that has happened". This is a welcome development, showing Ahmadinejad's self-corrective system, in view of his background as an educator, not to mention the deleterious effects on Iran's foreign-policy interests and priorities by such focus on a past tragedy.