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u.S. May SoonEase Sanctions on Iran
Gesture to Bac" KhatariiiRèformers Would Free3 Key Tehran ExporL~
By Robin Wright
Los Angeles Times Service
WASHINGTON - In whit would
be a groundbreaking initiativ~ to spur'
reconciliation with Iran, the Chnton administration
is close to a decision to lift
economic sanctions on Iranian carpets,
caviar and pistachio nuts, according to
U.S.officials. .
. The gesture, one of se~era1 be!ng
considered, follows a sweepIng election
victorylast .month by Iranian !"fo~,
.ending two decades of dOllllllation by
conservatives in the Iranian ~iament.
"We clearly view the parliamentary
elections as an important step, and we
want to make clear our attitude - that
we think: it would be very desirable to
have better channels of communication,"
said a senior administration official
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
.
Lifting sanctions on the three key
exports would be the broadest U.S. public
overture tci Iran since relations between
the two countries deteriorated in
1979 as Washington admitted the overthrown
shah of Iran to the United States.
Iranian s.tudents responded by seizing
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and holding
52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
After oil and gas, which account for
most of Iran's foreign income, carpets,
pistachios and caviar are its most im~
portant exports. But U.S. officials say .
that potential sales of the three products
to U.S. buyers would not be significanl
enough to enable Iran to fmance development
of weapons of mass destruction,
a key concern of critics.
President Bill Clinton's administration
has made no secret of its interesl in
finding ways to end two decades of
bitter relations between the two coun- .
tries. The hostility has been fueled by
such 'issues as Iran's support for extremist
groups linked to bombings of
U.S. facilities in Lebanon and Saudi
Arabia and the U.S. Navy's mistake in
shooting down an Iranian passenger jet
in 1988, killing all 290 on board, m-
cluding 66 children.
Last weekend in Los Angeles, Mr.
Clinton called Iran "one of the mosl
wonderful places in all human history"
during an appearance 'at a Democratic
Party fund-raiser held at the home of a
proininerit' Iranian-American., ...
"I hope and pray that :what we've
seen in three elections there means there
is movement toward o~Mess and freedom
there, too," he slUd."I've done my
best to support that process in the limited
wayan American president can. "
U.S. officials feel comfortable with
the sanctions initiative, in part because
ofa shift in public opinion in both
countries since the election in 1997 of
President Mohammed Khatami, Iran's
. l~ng reformer. Within months, he
open~ the door to .better relations by
publicly calling for people-to-people
exchanges to '.'bring down the wal.~of
. mistrust."
.A survey in 1998 by the nonpàrtisan
Foreign Policy Association found that
91 pen:ent of Americans supported
.opening a' d~alogue with. Iran. A new
survey by the association late lastyear
indicated that 72 percent of Americans
favored ending sanctions against Iran
IlOO80 percent suppOrted, U.S. concessions
to strengthen Mr. Kbatami's government
and permit a renewal of relations.
'
The plblic mood has shifted in Iran,
too, and not only among reformers. At
Friday Pfllyers last week, Ayatollah
Mmed Jannati, a member of the Council
of Guardiaris and one of Iran's leading
conservatives, hinted at a new flexibility
on relations with the United States and
Israel.
After criticizing both countries for
pasl meddling inlran and Lebanon, he
said: "If they did not infringe on our
lives, resources, honor and prestige, then
we would nol bother them. We could
treal them like the rest of the people in
the world. We extend our hand of friendship
tQ all nations in the world. ' ,
On the eve of the parliamentary elec-
.tions in Iran, Ali Reza Nouri, a reformer
who went on to win a seat in the elections,
prop