Iran-U.S. Ice May Be Thawing

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he sees the beginnings of a new attitude in Iran that could lead to a restoration of more friendly relations between the United States and the Islamic republic that President Bush has called part of an "axis of evil."

"There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future," Powell told The Washington Post on Monday for a story in Tuesday editions.

Iranian leaders have agreed to permit unannounced inspections of the country's nuclear energy program, made overtures to moderate Arab governments and accepted an offer of U.S. humanitarian aid following a devastating earthquake last week.

"All of those things taken together show, it seems to me, a new attitude in Iran in dealing with these issues — not one of total, open generosity," said Powell. "But they realize that the world is watching and the world is prepared to take action."

He added that "we still have concerns about terrorist activities, of course, and there are other issues with respect to al Qaeda and other matters that we'll have to keep in mind."

On Saturday, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage gave assurances of disaster assistance by telephone to Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, who was in Tehran.

Armitage said the earthquake was a humanitarian tragedy that transcended political consideration and called for the support of the United States, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday.

Zarif called Armitage back a few minutes later to accept the offer, Ereli said.

The death toll from Friday's 6.6-magnitude quake that shook the ancient city of Bam rose to 28,000, according to Ted Peran, coordinator of U.N. relief operations. At least 12,000 people were injured, the health ministry said.

The Pentagon says eight Air Force C-130 cargo planes have flown into Iran with a total of 150,000 pounds of relief supplies, including blankets, medical supplies and water.

Additionally, an Air Force C-5A cargo plane has flown relief personnel and medial specialists to the region.

The aid is unlikely, however, to absorb a half-century of bad blood between the United States and Iran.

In 1953, Washington orchestrated a coup that overthrew an elected Iranian government. Twenty-six years later, radical Islamists overthrew the U.S.-installed shah and overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They took Americans hostage and held them until January 1981. Eight U.S. soldiers died during a failed attempt to rescue the hostages in 1980.

Iran has long been listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, with its alleged links to Hezbollah. Officials in the Reagan administration sold arms to Iran in the 1980s to secure the release of American hostages in Lebanon, as well as to fund the contra insurgency in Nicaragua.

In 1988, amid skirmishes with Iranian gunboats in the Persian Gulf, the Navy vessel USS Vincennes mistook an Iranian jetliner for a military aircraft and shot it down, killing some 290 people on board.

In 2002, Mr. Bush dubbed Iran a member of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea. Earlier this year, the Bush administration accused Iran of trying to destabilize postwar Iraq, seeking a nuclear bomb and harboring al Qaeda figures linked to bombings in Saudi Arabia.

Some conservative advisers to the president suggested a policy of "regime change" toward Iran. U.S. forces in Iraq briefly agreed a cease-fire with a terrorist group based in Iraq that opposes Iran's ruling clerics.

But according to the Post, U.S. officials have taken heart in Iran's agreeing to wider nuclear inspections and meeting with moderate Muslim leaders from Jordan and Egypt. Iran is a Muslim country but not an Arab state: Its major ethnic group is Persian, and the main language in Farsi.

Iran also acquiesced over the U.S. invasion of neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and was fairly quiet about the war in Iraq this year.

Internal developments also appear promising, if incomplete. Iran's president, Mohammed Khatami, is a reform-minded cleric whose efforts at modernization have been blocked by a conservative judiciary.