Four years ago this month, I was in Tehran to cover the election. All eyes were on Iran as reform-minded candidates for president promised change if elected. There was great anticipation in the U.S. that maybe this might be a pivot point in our relationship with Iran. In some ways, it was. Things got worse.
A little-known, conservative, former mayor of Tehran who wasn't on the radar of any of the pundits surged to victory and won the election.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's belligerent and provocative statements about the U.S. and Israel since his election have dashed the hopes of those who were eager for a new chapter in U.S.-Iran relations.
(In this picture, I'm reporting from in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran where 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days)
I was among the many correspondents in Iran who were stunned at Ahmadinejad's victory. I was also upset that I'd missed out on the opportunity to interview him. Days before the election, I'd been offered an interview but it conflicted with another interview we were doing. The conventional wisdom was Ahmadinejad didn't have a shot of winning. In fact, when we were offered the interview I said: "We can interview who?" And so, in one of the greatest tactical blunders of my career, I turned it down. Days later, this long shot "nobody" was a big somebody.
My failure to get the big interview was part of a bigger failure of many outsiders to understand the real Iran and to understand Iranians. While we were all focused on Iran's relationship with the outside world, Iranians were apparently focused on the thing that often drives American voters to the polls--the economy, stupid. Unemployment was at record levels and many Iranians were feeling forgotten by the establishment. Ahmadinejad was essentially promising a chicken in every pot if he was elected.
Unfortunately for Ahmadinejad, that chicken has failed to materialize in most pots across Iran and these could be his final days as president. Does that mean hope for the many Iranians who want reform? Maybe. But no one should expect a sudden thawing of relations between Iran and the U.S. or wholesale changes in Iran. Because at the end of the day, the president of Iran is still second fiddle to the hard line religious leadership of the country. The Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, still runs the show.
That's why every Friday, you can still see thousands of Iranians gathered at the University of Tehran shouting: "Death to America! Death to Israel!" As an American, it was pretty unsettling to be standing right near those folks as they demanded the death of my country. But as it was explained to me later, they don't mean it literally. It's more of a rallying cry of pride for true believers, Iranians told me. They don't want to kill us as individual Americans or even America as a nation, I was told.
And the truth is, everywhere I went in Tehran, people were quite happy to speak with the visiting Americans. Iranians are world-famous for their hospitality and yet I was still taken aback at just how friendly people were to me. They repeatedly told me they didn't war with America and that they in fact like Americans. These were not hand-picked Iranians provided by some handler but simply folks we encountered as we traveled. I found a teenager shooting hoops at one apartment complex and I jumped at the chance to teach him how to play HORSE. I was surprised to learn how much he knew about the NBA. This gentle 16-year-old kid told me his favorite player was not an Iranian superstar, but Allen Iverson. Allen Iverson!
My sense during my brief visit to Iran was that many people there do want change. They don't want to be a mini-U.S. but they do want to engage us. I heard over and over from people on the street that they have no quarrel with the American people. I found the average Iranian wants the same things we do--peace and prosperity for their families. If you were to step into an average person's apartment in Tehran and you didn't know you were in Iran, you might think you were in Los Angeles. You'd be welcomed and offered a snack and maybe a glass of wine (even though it's illegal), you might watch a little satellite TV (even though that too is prohibited), you'd be welcome to have conversation on anything from politics to film personalities. You'd eat and laugh and head back to your four-star hotel with a smile on your face. I sure did.
Of course, few if any would say Iran's current leaders are as hospitable to America. In fact, many would say Iran's leadership openly exports terror and weapons that put Americans in harm's way. But as we look in on Iran today, I just wanted to share what I experienced on the ground in Iran about average Iranians. I didn't meet a single Iranian who said he wanted to harm us. Didn't meet a single Iranian who wanted war. I did meet many Iranians who were hopeful for change. I doubt that has changed in the four years since I was there.
