Talk the talk

A few thoughts about the talk Iran’s Khatami gave in Washington this week, as reported here by CNN, for instance.

Dialogue and negotiation are the only ways to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, but first “we have to eliminate the language of threat,” said former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday, amid a two-week visit to the U.S.

First, it would help if he told that to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the map.

Dialogue should be the primary means of settling differences over Iran’s nuclear program, and the details — including whether the Islamic republic should suspend its nuclear activities — can be sorted out later, he said.

Details?! Thos nuclear activities are what this is all about.

Dialogue means a discussion between different groups, and the only ones doing that have been the member nations of the UN Security Council. Iran has not budged. And they certainly have not joined the dialogue. The only talk coming out of Tehran has been ‘No, we will not stop enriching uranium.’ And by the way, that part about the ‘details’ of their nuclear activities getting sorted out later, how much later?

“I believe that’s the best recourse, to talk and negotiate,” Khatami said.

So, stall for time, which has worked up to this point.

“If you want to accept to live in a democratic state and a democratic society, you have to tolerate the voices of dissent,” he said. “Democracy is a process, not a project.”

And how is that process going right now in Iran?