In foreign policy, Asgharzadeh has been described as an advocate of "improved relations with the United States", who questioned President Khatami's handling of "an opportunity to mend relations with the United States" when he (Khatami) failed to follow up on a March 2000 acknowledgement by American Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright of "American errors in its dealings with Iran, including Washington's support for a coup in 1953." On the other hand, according to Mahan Abedin, he is "probably the most determined and effective anti-American ideologue in the contemporary world", and an even "more determined opponent of American hegemony" than he was as a hostage-taker of Americans in 1979.