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Sick: Iranian Leader Sees Trip to New York as 'Successful'

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Gary G. Sick, executive director of the Gulf/2000 Project, Columbia University
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

September 26, 2007

Gary G. Sick, a longtime Iranian expert who served on the Ford, Carter, and Reagan National Security Councils, says that he believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regards his visit to the United Nations and New York City as "successful" because it allowed him to get his views out to a wide audience, and particularly to "people in the Islamic world and the Middle East, especially Arabs." Sick says an opportunity for a dialogue between Iran and the United States may have to wait until 2009 when there will be a new U.S. president, and possibly a new Iranian president. He does not think the United States will attack Iran militarily.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is winding up another highly controversial trip to the United Nations and New York, his third in as many years. How do you think it went for him? He certainly was attacked, particularly in the New York tabloid press and also by the president of Columbia University which had invited him to speak there.

Along with a group of academics, think tank people, and some media folks, I had an opportunity for a second meeting with him Tuesday night, after having watched him at Columbia the day before. I would say, based on his discussion on Tuesday night, that he feels this was a successful visit. He sees it as having vindicated him—allowing him to get his views out to a wide audience. He feels that the audience he was aiming at, primarily people in the Islamic world and the Middle East, especially Arabs, heard his message and this will probably burnish his reputation with them. That’s what he cared about, and from his point of view, he probably succeeded.

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Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.