It's Time to Engage With Iran

"Ahmadinejad's letter clearly had the backing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the American context, that's like having the support of Vice President Cheney for a peace feeler. My own Iranian sources say there is broad consensus in Tehran that it is time for talks with the United States. 'Iran wants to start discussions the same way the Chinese wanted discussions' with Nixon, an Iranian businessman named Ali Ettefagh told me in an e-mail this week. 'Great Satan doesn't sell anymore. More than half the population was not born 27 years ago, and the broken record does not play well.' The Iranian offer of dialogue, he says, 'ought to be taken as an opportunity, if only to air out grievances and amplify differences.'"

It's Time to Engage With Iran