Subject: Fw: Financial Times, February 20, 2013
From: "fariborz fatemi" <[email-masked]>
To: "fariborz fatemi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:48:25 -0800 (PST)

The Financial Times

February 20, 2013 10:44 pm

Boldness in face of Iran-US mistrust

From Mr Fariborz S. Fatemi.

Sir, In your editorial “Iran’s intransigence”
 (February 15), you claimed rightly that the “message needs to be clear 
if ... Iran is to be encouraged to negotiate”. Unfortunately, neither 
side’s message is clear. And, side actors do their share to muddy the 
waters.
In the same week that the US vice-president Joe Biden repeated the offer that the US is prepared to hold bilateral talks,
 Washington announces another round of “crippling sanctions”. And 
while,for months, rumours fly that there may be bilateral talks brewing 
and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, announces his 
government’s willingness to hold talks, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
 Khamenei, in a cryptic message, rejects such talks. The level of mistrust is immense and continues to grow.

There are elements on both sides that do not want any talks to be 
held and certainly not to succeed. However, one thing is clear: it is 
not in either country’s national security interest to have this 
hostility of decades go on and on, especially with its potential for 
numerous unintended consequences. 

The US and Iran share many interests. And with peace in the balance, 
leadership on both sides must act boldly, wisely and take risks to allow
 diplomacy to succeed.

Fariborz S. Fatemi, McLean, VA, US; Former Professional Staff
 Member, House Foreign Affairs Committee, Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee