Welcome to my country

As an American visitor in Iran who is obviously not Iranian, one is frequently approached in public places with the question “Where are you from?” When you say America”, the usual response is “Welcome to my country” or ‘Welcome to my city”. This response of ownership reflects the strong nationalism of Iranians and their great pride in their ancient civilization, much of it dating from the 2nd millennium BCE. I met a young lady in Persopolis, a palace complex dating to 500 BCE, who was in tears. When asked why she was crying, she responded that “I am so sad that that my country has fallen from where it was to where it is today.” This pride in their country’s historical importance manifests itself when the man in the street supports the efforts of a relatively unpopular regime to stand up to the west and insist that their rights under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) be respected. Given this popular support it is unlikely that US efforts to force Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program will have an impact. The best that the US can hope for is that Iran will live up to its obligations under the NPT and allow effective IAEA inspections to remain in place. The current US sanctions are having little effect. There is some cost to the economy since international credit card transactions have to be processed through Dubai, some US patented drugs hard to obtain and spare parts for US made equipment are unavailable except at a very high cost. Everything needs a middleman. (Our guides mother and mother in law both called to see if he had survived our flight from Tehran to Yazd. They said “Our planes are not safe.”) There is also a cost to the US from the sanctions. Iran is building strong business relationships with French, Russian, Chinese and Arab state business entities. These business relationships will be hard to overcome when relations are normalized and Iranians fully expect that to happen. When there was pressure to sell the US embassy property to pay compensation to the victims of the Iran Air flight shot down by the USS Vincennes, President Amadenijad refused to allow it. He said “The property belongs to the US and they will want it back when they return”. Currently the former embassy is a now closed museum of American “crimes”. Current US policy of attempting to unilaterally isolate Iran will probably have the same effect as US Cuba policy and keep the current regime in place for a long time. We would be better served by engaging this proud nation with its moderate Muslim population and with its potential to be an ally in stabilizing this troubled part of the world.