Tag: US-Iran Book

Articles, Publications

America needs Iranian cooperation

Posted on

When the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 world powers kicked off with renewed hope after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s inauguration in August 2013, ­­­Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quick to endorse the diplomatic efforts but also stressed that the “U.S. government is not trustworthy.” Indeed, the main impediment to normal relations between Iran and the United States since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been the mutual mistrust between the two sides. Iran, for its part, has a long list of legitimate grievances. The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein in the conflict that began with his invasion of Iran in 1980, sparking an eight-year war that cost the lives of over 300,000 Iranians and resulted in an estimated $1.19 trillion in damage to both sides. During the war, the Iraqi army used chemical weapons against Iran, killing and injuring over 50,000 civilians.

Read More

“America needs Iranian cooperation,” Seyed Hossein Mousavian, USAToday, January 14, 2016.

 

Media, Media Coverage

Book on Iran-U.S. relationship reprinted

Posted on

According to IBNA correspondent, the book ‘Iran and America; past failure and reconciliation path’ is republished by Tisa publications.

The book consists of eight chapters with the following topics; ‘The relationship between Iran and America, from friendship to enmity’, ‘Hostage crisis, distrust and misunderstanding’, ‘Decade of war and stabilizing the revolution 1980 – 1989’, ‘A pragmatic president’, ‘The rise of the reform movement in Iran (1997 – 2005)’, ‘Ending sixteen years of mediocrity’, ‘Two views about the main conflicts’ and ‘The roadmap to peace’.

Read More

“Book on Iran-U.S. Relationship reprinted,” IBNA, December 19, 2015.

Book Review

Book Review: Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View of the Failed Past and the Road to Peace

Posted on

There cannot be progress toward a worthwhile cooperative security architecture for the Middle East region unless the Iranian system, in all its multi-faceted complexity, arrives at the conclusion that such outcomes are to Iran’s overall strategic advantage, or at least are compatible with Iranian interests. Building a reasonably predictable basis for engagement between Iran and the United States on regional security issues, including of course in regard to the search for an agreed outcome on the Iranian nuclear program, Iraq and Syria, is among the major challenges facing the regional outlook. Iranian perceptions of the United States and US regional agendas need to be understood in considerable depth.

The publication by Iranian diplomat and negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian of an analysis, from an Iranian perspective, of past failures in the management of the US-Iran relationship is therefore noteworthy. As could be expected from a seasoned foreign policy practitioner, Mousavian’s account of the relationship with the United States is far from balanced: in some respects it is at least as much a matter of advocacy or gentle chiding of US approaches as it is of history. It is, nevertheless, a significant insight into the world view of a senior Iranian official with considerable exposure to both western interlocutors and the Iranian leadership.

Read More

“Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View of the Failed Past and the Road to Peace,” Bob Bowker, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, The Australian National University, June 12, 2015.

Interviews

Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View

Posted on

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, the lead author of Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace, has two objectives: to help American readers understand the Iranian perspective on the fraught US-Iranian relationship, and to advocate a sustained attempt to break the cycle of hostility that was triggered by the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Such is the suspicion on both sides of this relationship that some readers may wonder about the extent to which Mousavian’s descriptions of the Iranian perspective in this book, which was co-authored by Shahir Shahidsaless, can be trusted. This reviewer’s opinion is that Mousavian—a former Iranian ambassador who has been living in the US since 2009—whom the reviewer has known since 2004, is not trying to pull wool over anyone’s eyes. There is corroborating evidence for much of the information he advances. If in places the reader senses that he or she is not getting the full story, a respectable explanation is to hand: those who have worked at the heart of a government, as Mousavian has done, are bound to be “economical” with certain truths, as a British cabinet secretary once put it.

Read More

“Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View,” Peter Jenkins, BBC Farsi, October 13, 2014.