HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

'We witness in both East and West an idiom that does nothing but antagonize the other,' said former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the Kennedy School. 'We have no other option but to change traditions, Eastern and Western viewpoints.' (Staff photo Justin Ide/Harvard News Office)

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Sunday (Sept. 10) that al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden has committed two crimes: one of violence and a second by doing violence in the name of Islam, a religion of "peace and justice."

Khatami, who spoke at the Kennedy School of Government's John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum for an hour and 40 minutes, including questions, said he'd like to see all "terrorists and war-mongers" incapable of perpetrating future violence.

Although he denounced bin Laden, Khatami said he and the Iranian government opposed the Bush administration's response to the 9/11 attacks, pointing out that bin Laden remains free and that Iraq has become a focal point of violence and terrorism.

More broadly, Khatami characterized American international policy as imperialistic and said it was borrowed from pre-World War II European imperialism.

Despite his criticism of the United States, Khatami repeatedly praised the international spread of democracy - calling it the "discourse of our time" - and repeatedly condemned violence. He called on the Islamic world and the Middle East to embrace democracy and to modernize, but cautioned that those changes can't just be copied from the West.

The former president decried an international double standard that applies one set of rules to the West, particularly the United States, and a second set to the East, including Iran. Such a double standard, he said, leads to a cycle of "murder for revenge and revenge for murder."

Khatami's visit was just the latest stop on a multicity tour of the United States. He called on people in both the East and West to throw out old ways of thinking of each other and to come together for a new understanding and a more peaceful future.

"We witness in both East and West an idiom that does nothing but to antagonize the other," Khatami said. "We have no other option but to change traditions, Eastern and Western viewpoints."

Protesters gather peacefully outside the Kennedy School to protest the visit of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. (Staff photo Emily Berl/Harvard News Office)

Khatami, who spoke mostly in Farsi, with his words translated into English by an onstage translator, was clearly sensitive to Monday's five-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The only time he dispensed with the translator and spoke in English to the packed forum crowd was at the end of his roughly 40-minute speech, when he called the attacks "one of the greatest of calamities" and pointed out that he was one of the first world leaders to condemn them.

As is the tradition at the Kennedy School's Forum, Khatami was questioned directly by audience members after he'd finished his prepared remarks, fielding numerous questions about Hezbollah, the Holocaust, Israel's right to exist, and repression within Iran.

In response, Khatami said he does not believe Israel should be wiped from the map as his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said. But Khatami went on to say that 50 years ago, Palestine was, and that people must remember that. He denied that Iran has supported Hezbollah with either weapons or money, and, though he opposes violence, said in talking about Hezbollah, that "justified resistance" shouldn't be confused with terrorism.

Khatami was introduced by Graham Allison, director of the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Allison's introductory comments seemed at least partly aimed at critics of the visit, who complained it came too close to the 9/11 attacks to make it seemly to host the former president of a nation that President Bush has labeled part of an "Axis of Evil," and which is accused of sponsoring terrorist organizations.

Allison said that the Kennedy School and the entire Boston area views the 9/11 attacks "as a dark day in American history" and pointed out that people affiliated with the Kennedy School died because of them. Allison asked the audience to stand to observe a moment of silence in memory of 9/11 victims before introducing Khatami.

Allison also pointed out that President Bush approved of Khatami's visit, citing news reports that said Bush wants to hear what Khatami has to say.

U.S.-Iranian relations, Allison said, are among the most important in the world right now, with Iran wielding considerable influence in Iraq.

One of the most prominent critics of the visit has been Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who denied any state support or services for the visiting Khatami, including security services. Police departments in Cambridge and Boston as well as Harvard University Police and the State Department's security services provided security for the visit.

Kennedy School Dean David Ellwood answered critics of the visit last week, reiterating that Khatami's visit was approved by the Bush administration and nothing that the former Iranian president was making several stops, including the University of Virginia and the Washington National Cathedral. Ellwood said it is a long Kennedy School tradition to allow world leaders the chance to address students and faculty, and for students and faculty to get a chance to ask unfiltered questions.

"Given this critical moment in the Middle East, and the attempt by the U.S. and other nations to find a peaceful accommodation with Iran, a visit by Khatami seemed very much in the tradition of the free exchange of ideas that is a central part of the life of the University," Ellwood said.

An hour before the talk, about two dozen protesters stood peacefully holding signs outside the Kennedy School's Taubman Building, where members of the audience were entering. Sean Mahoney of Boston said he was protesting the visit partly because of its proximity to the anniversary of 9/11 and partly because he felt the visit was meant to distract from the nuclear standoff between the United States and Iran.

Mahoney, who said he'd followed Khatami's career when the former president was in office, said he'd expected more reforms during Khatami's two terms, which lasted from 1997 until 2005.

In closing comments, Allison said he hoped the event was the beginning of a conversation between the United States and Iran, and thanked Khatami for launching the dialogue.

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