Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Obama's Persian Double

By Pepe Escobar

On Tuesday, Iran celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. In this year of celebrations galore - from the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall to the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution - why not also dream of a year zero?

It's September 2009. Barack Obama is the United States president. Mohammad "dialogue of civilizations" Khatami is the Iranian president. Khatami flies to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He bumps into Obama in the corridors of the UN. With fists unclenched, they exchange pleasantries - and retire to a room for some real "face-to-face". The 30-year - some would say 56-year - wall of mistrust between the US and Iran finally comes tumbling down.

If current Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad remains a mirror image of the departed George W Bush, Khatami could not be a more fitting mirror image of Obama....[More]

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