U.S. President Barack Obama released the video greetings below to the Iranian government and people.
The Nowruz holiday greetings are a rare opportunity to hear an American leader praising the culture and accomplishments of Iranian society. More than 50 years after the U.S. overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, this is a hopeful sign that perhaps our two nations can find a path to better relations.
Whitehouse.gov links: video, video with farsi subtitles, text of speech, or Farsi translation
On one hand, I feel that this is an important gesture, but I am not convinced that it is an authentic message of real good will. I am a big fan of Obama, and I wish him well, but his Mideast policies are not very different from administrations past. I have a feeling that this is more smokescreen than not.
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