In an unprecedented address to the American people, the Iranian President, Muhammad Khatami, has repeated his call for dialogue between Iranians and Americans. But, in a wide-ranging interview with CNN, President Khatami said it was too early to talk to the United States government, which he criticized for what he described as a cold-war mentality. Our regional reporter, Caroline Hawley, reports on the speech and where it now leaves the relationship between Iran and the United States.

President Mohammad Khatami spoke of his great respect for the American people, but said Iran had no need for ties with the United States administration, at present.

He said Washington had pursued a policy of domination over the past half-century and before there could be any change in Iran's policy towards Washington, there must first be a crack in what he called the wall of mistrust between the two countries. But President Khatami said he did want to see warmer relations between Iranians and Americans.

"Firstly nothing should prevent dialogue and understanding between two nations, especially between their scholars and thinkers. Right now I recomend the exchange of professors, writer, scholars, artists, journalist and tourists.

"A large number of educated and noble Iranians now reside in the United States as representatives of the Iranian nation. This shows that there is no hostility between the two nations. But the dialogue between civilisations and nations are different from political relations."

The State Department welcomed the Iranian President's appeal for better relations between the two peoples, but expressed disappointment that President Khatami had not called for direct talks between the two governments.

But the very fact that the President Khatami was addressing the American people on an American television network is of immense symbolic signficance. Iran and the United States have been hostile to each other for nearly two decades.

They broke off relations shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, when radicals took employees of the American embassy hostage for more than a year. And this was the first time since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that an Iranian leader has directly addressed the American people. It would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.

But much has changed in Iran since President Khatami won a landslide victory against his conservative opponents in May, after campaigning on a platform of change and greater open-ness. A soft-spoken cleric, he's championed the idea of a dialogue of civilizations and said that the Islamic world has much to learn from the West. American officials have welcomed what they've described as a new tone coming out of Iran. And it's given a push to a major rethinking of American policy towards Iran.

Many influential former policy-makers believe the United States should now actively attempt to engage rather than contain Iran. They're concerned that American sanctions against Iran -- particularly the law punishing foreign companies that invest in Iran -- is isolating Washington rather than Tehran.

Gary Sick -- a former member of the National Security Council, and now an academic at Columbia University -- says it's now very difficult to turn around what he calls the demonisation of Iran that's been in vogue in US policy-making circles for the past few years, just as it's difficult for many Iranians to quickly change their view of the US as the Great Satan.

"There's a great deal of rethinking going on outside the administration by very senior former policy people -- two former national security advisors, a former secretary of state, defense, three former assistant secretaries for the near east, a former commander of US forces in the Gulf and on and on, have come out calling for a change in US policy and more dialogue with Iran.

That message I believe is being heard in Washington. But the United States and Iran in some respects are sort of mirror images of each other. For the past five years, the United States has scarcely mentionned Iran without the words rogue or outlaw or terrorist state."

In addition, the United States sanctions against Iran are now part of American law. So Sick says that while both President Khatami and President Clinton have both gone a long way to softening the rhetoric about their respective countries, there are many obstacles to a real rapprochement between Iran and the United States.

"I think it's going to be hard for the administration to work its way out of this bind that it's created for itself. So I see no signs of any prospect of immediate dramatic change in US policy, but I think we're beginning to see cracks in the ice and other things become possible."

American officials say they want a direct, open dialogue with Iran, but that any talks must address Washington's concerns -- that Iran remains a sponsor of international terrorism, that it's developing weapons of mass destruction and that it's undermining the Middle East peace process. Iran sees American insistence on these issues as evidence of continued ill-will on the part of the United States.

President Khatami has now made clear that any political dialogue or rapprochement between Tehran and Washington can only come if Washington changes what he calls its hostility towards Iran. His address may not lead to a quick diplomatic breakthrough.

But it comes despite strong opposition from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to the United States. And it suggests that the tentative beginnings of some kind of thaw between the two countries are likely to continue.
 

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