Hedging and Balancing
The speech then reverts to commonalities and poetry, quoting the amply bilateral line (in implication and religious imagery) by the Medieval Persian poet and social philosopher Saadi, a liberal mystic of his day: "The children of Adam are limbs to each other, having been created of one essence." Again, Obama is speaking here more to American conservatives, who are suckers for religious allusions to founding ribs, than to Iranian clerics, who don't have to be lectured about their spiritual anatomy.
Most of the commentary I've seen today focuses on Obama addressing Iran, as if that's all he was doing. We'd be missing the cleverness and purpose of the address if we don't pay attention to its attempt to disarm domestic criticism for anything that looks like a friendly overture toward Iran, overdue though it is: the alternative isn't working, and it's making Iran more powerful in the Middle East and its clerical reactionaries more legitimate than they deserve to be.
The final line, spoken in Persian, was a deft touch: Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak (though again, Albright beat him to it in 2000).
Iran's Response
Iran's response was swift (a sign of respect) but not quite original, nor too elevated. It came from Aliakbar Javanfekr, an aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which suggests that the knee-jerk response is taking precedence while a more calculated response, either from Ahmadinejad or, more importantly, from Ayatollah Khamenei, who decides all fates in Iran, may be in the works.
"We welcome the interest of the American government to settle differences (with Iran). The American government should realize its previous mistakes and make an effort to amend them in order to put aside differences," Javanfekr said. "By fundamentally changing its behavior, America can offer us a friendly hand. So far what we have received have been unfriendly fists. Unlimited sanctions which still continue and have been renewed by the United States are wrong and need to be reviewed." Javanfekr cleverly turned on its head Obama's famous line from his inaugural address ("we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist").
But Iran's response is still the same old rhetoric, brandishing America's alliance with Israel as an inherent obstacle (Iran will have to get over that one) and wagging a patronizing finger of its own with admonitions that the United States should admit to past mistakes. Again, that quagmire.
Perhaps it's too much to expect from the office of the unimaginative Ahmadinejad a response on par with Obama's. But no less will lead to progress. Maybe Iranians are getting another message between Obama's lines: Come the June 12 presidential election, get rid of that nullity in Ahmadinejad and elect someone who'll be serious about reform. Someone who doesn't necessarily speak Obama's language, but who at least appreciates Saadi's.