A Visa For A President

Tehran, August 10th. For anyone following news of the nuclear standoff with Iran, it would be good to remember that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is, at present, in his honeymoon phase with the Iranian people. As one Tehran cab driver said to me yesterday, summing up the recent elections, “There are those who believe that freedom means being able to wear shorts (men) and remove their hijab (women), and there those who believe that freedom means having a full belly. There are just more of the latter.”

Some of the Iranians who make up the former group were concerned that within hours of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s inauguration the Basij paramilitary forces would sweep the streets of northern Tehran of scantily clad (by Iranian standards) men and women, but they have been proven wrong. And not surprisingly, most Iranians who make up the latter group are willing to give their new president some time to fill their bowls.

Tehran residents are not just speculating on the outcome of the nuclear chess game but also on whether their new president will be denied a visa to the U.S. to attend the U.N. General Assembly in September. The nuclear issue and a visa for Mr. Ahmadinejad are more closely related than one might think. The State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, has refused in the last two days to elaborate on the U.S. position other than to say it is under consideration. But one has to assume that the Bush administration realizes that virtually nothing, short of a military strike against Iran right now, would unite the nation behind President Ahmadinejad (and harm the reform movement) more than his being denied a visa to visit the U.N.. It would also, quite clearly, further embolden the most anti-American voices in the Iranian government and perhaps finally doom the prospects for a negotiated nuclear agreement with the West.

Unless the U.S. can produce hard evidence that Mr. Ahmadinejad was involved in terrorist activity (which most Iranians, even those opposed to him, don’t believe), the State Department would do well to put this issue to bed by quickly issuing him and his delegation visas. And if President Bush truly prefers a diplomatic solution to the nuclear crisis with Iran, a good first step would be a visa for a president.