Is Iran's Ahmadinejad for Real?

I was transfixed and hopeful when I heard the news yesterday that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was preparing a proposal to begin "a fresh start with the West." Apparently, however, the forthcoming proposal may not adequately address Iran's uranium enrichment program. That quickly turned my hope to solid skepticism. I was heartened to learn that the U.S., the European Union, China and Russia had already rejected Iran's proposal probably because of that glaring omission. It's obvious that Iran has everything to gain and the West (most probably) has everything to lose with the proposal as it stands now and I was glad that at least the major world powers rejected it unanimously and emphatically. Isn't this the guy who vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and take the U.S. with it? Isn't Iran working tenaciously to develop nuclear weapons in order to accomplish that mission? The U.S. and the West have been desperately trying to keep Iran from getting those weapons. There can be no "fresh start" without first addressing and reconciling those opposing points of view.

It appears that Ahmadinejad has at least three reasons for wanting to chat it up with us and the rest of the West, without conditions of course. First, he is apparently fighting for his political life in the upcoming June national presidential election. The polls apparently indicate that his opponent, Mr. Mousavi, is cleaning his clock, so Ahmadinejad could think that making nice with the U.S. and the rest of the West might win him some support at home. Second, the West can't very well continue its effort to stop Iran from building nukes if it is "negotiating in good faith" with Iran. Third, and for the same reason, it is unlikely that Israel will take military action against Iran, which it vowed to do because of Iran's horrific threat against it, while its best ally, the U.S., and Iran are engaged in discussions to begin anew and bury the hatchet.

The bottom line is that if Iran wants to forge a new and more moderate relationship with the West, it must know that it must first knock off the nuke activity. Claiming that Iran's interest in nukes is for electricity generation is insulting. And, insulting the intelligence of those you're supposedly trying to make nice with is hardly the way to bring about a new beginning. It will be interesting to see just how serious Ahmadinejad is about reaching out to the West in the weeks ahead, especially as Iran's June election nears.