We did not treat the Americans badly. They left Iran in a relaxed mood. The embassy was active here after the revolution. We didn't have any problem with them. They started it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The reason that Americans have not been able to see the great strategic benefit that could accrue from a closer relationship with Iran is emotion.
I guess the biggest surprise I got going to Iran was that the Iranians really liked me as an American.
It's the governments that create the problems. People are fun; people get along. People in Iran really love Americans. There is no problem between us.
The Americans invaded a country without understanding what eight years of a war with Iran had meant, how that traumatized Iraq. They didn't appreciate what they support for a decade of sanctions in Iraq had done to Iraq and the bitterness that it created and that it wiped out the middle class.
In short, the time has come for us as American and Iranian citizens to apply our mutual energy, intellect, and goodwill toward strengthening relations between our two countries, as their destinies are intertwined.
We have taught Iran's leaders and the world a very bad lesson: that there is a price on the head of Americans to be held hostage.
Inside Iran, people are actually quite well-educated about America. There are things they don't understand, particularly in the government, but the people, by and large, know the American sensibility quite well, and the reverse is not true.
America was cool with Saddam Hussein when he was killing Iranians.
We often forget that Iran has a long tradition and history with the United States. Iranians have been coming to the United States as students for decades. American businessmen were in Iran developing the oil fields. ...There was an American financial advisor to the Iranian government in the early part of the century.
The Iranian people, with regards to the policies of various American administrations in the past 30 years, are very worried. They don't trust them.
No opposing quotes found.