Iranians See Talks With U.S. as Historic

America is ever present in Iran. For reform-minded Iranians, America is a fascination, especially among those with relatives in the U.S., or specifically in "Tehrangeles", as many Iranians call Los Angeles. For Iranians more content with the present conservative regime, the U.S. is a fount of plots against Iran. But for all Iranians there is hunger for dealing with the U.S. on equal footing. Hence, the coming discussions should be a source of considerable excitement.


Iranians See Talks With U.S. as Historic: "Inside Iran, however, an appetite for rapprochement grew along with a population whose youthful majority had no memory of the revolution.
In 2002, a poll found that three-quarters of Iranians surveyed favored talks with the United States. The pollster was thrown in jail, but the reality drove a quiet competition between Iran's two rival political forces.
'Whoever could take the prize' of U.S. rapprochement would, it was widely believed, dominate Iranian politics for the foreseeable future, said Mehdi Karrubi, a moderate cleric who was speaker of the last parliament dominated by reformers."