Hope is growing. Khatami is now taking the line that Iran can live with any peace settlement the Palestine Liberation Organization accepts, though he believes the talks will fail. The Clinton administration sees only modest changes in Iranian involvement in terrorism. Iran continues to fund, and sometimes train, anti-Israeli terror groups like Islamic Jihad in Israel's West Bank and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon continue. Finally, Iran watchers in the U.S. government detect no change in what they say are efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
Iranian officials insist that they have no such programs.
But some hawks here argue that they ought to. We should not play this shy game because someone's accusing us. More wrestling, but of a different kind, will be needed to mend U.S. relations with Iran. To change Iran's hard-line positions, Khatami will have to call on his popular support and pin down those who resist change. A taste of Iranian restiveness came last November, when the national soccer team unexpectedly qualified for the World Cup.