ON THE SLY, IRAN WEIGHS CLOSER TIES WITH U.S.

TEHRAN -- No issue is more central in Iran these days than the officially
nonexistent relations with the United States.

How the Islamic state should handle ties with Washington, which were
severed in 1979 after militants attacked the American embassy and took its
diplomats hostage, is a topic that divides hard-liners from reformers, and
seemingly President Mohammad Khatami, who left for America today, from the
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Ayatollah has firmly rejected the idea of a dialogue with the United
States, saying those who even suggest it should be removed from their
positions. The hard-line judiciary went beyond its constitutional role and
set up a body that was supposed to ensure that no official would pursue
relations with the United States.

But reformers have ignored this injunction and insisted that it is in
Iran's national interest to talk to Washington.

Mr. Khatami, elected twice with sizable majorities, lately has been
sounding more conciliatory toward Washington. He conferred with Ayatollah
Khamenei, who is formally in charge of foreign policy, before he left, with
the official IRNA news agency saying only that the supreme leader offered
guidance.

At the onset of America's war against Afghanistan -- whose Sunni Muslim
Taliban rulers have long been foes of Iran's Shiite Muslim leaders -- Iran
agreed to assist American pilots if they were downed on Iranian soil.
Iran's representative to the United Nations, Mohammad Hadi
Nejad-Hosseinian, met with several Senators in Washington in an effort
aimed at mending relations.

Further, several moderate legislators in Iran came out publicly in favor of
improving relations.

Behzad Nabavi, a prominent member of parliament who in the past has
expressed anti-American sentiments, said his reformist party, known as the
Second of Khordad Front, wants normal relations with all countries except
Israel.

"Normalizing ties with America does not contradict our values of 22 years
ago when the embassy was seized -- the conditions of today require
different policies," he said in an interview.

Another reformist member of parliament, Jamileh Kadivar, noted that Iran
has to juggle two seemingly contradictory goals: on the one hand, it wants
to stymie any threat from Afghanistan, a state that it almost waged war
against in 1998 over the killing of 10 diplomats and a journalist by the
Taliban, but on the other, it wants to preserve its standing as a leading
Islamic country by remaining loyal to a Muslim nation while it is being
attacked.

"Our difficulty is that because of Iran's geopolitical position we have to
adopt policies that would serve our national interests in the region, and
as an Islamic country we have to stand by the religious values we raised
ourselves," Ms. Kadivar said during a seminar sponsored by the Foreign
Ministry in Tehran. "Thus, Iran has tried to maintain a policy of active
neutrality, so that it would not appear that Iran is supporting either
America or the Taliban."

Iran is still on America's terrorist list, she noted, and indeed many
Iranians are concerned that if the nation does not play its cards right,
the war might come to include Iran.

Officials here say that none of the 22 most wanted terrorists named by the
Bush administration reside in Iran. Imad Fayez Mughniyah, one of the
driving forces behind Hezbollah, who is wanted by the United States, holds
Iranian citizenship, but the authorities here say he has left the country.

For now, however, both Iran and the United States are emphasizing their
common interests, with their officials meeting quietly in an eight-nation
group that gathers in Geneva.

Iran has for years supplied weapons to Washington's new friends, the
Northern Alliance rebels in Afghanistan, and long appealed to the outside
world to help restore peace and stability to Iran's eastern neighbor.

Two decades of instability and civil war in Afghanistan have cost Iran $15
billion, officials said this week, as it copes with two million refugees
and increased drug trafficking.

On Friday, President Khatami will speak at the United Nations as part of
what is being billed as a dialogue among civilizations. Before his
departure, the president said he would suggest to the General Assembly
that, instead of forming a coalition for war, the world's nations should
work together for peace and justice.

"Iran and the U.S. will have to resolve their differences one day," said
Issa Saharkhiz, the publisher of Aftab monthly. "They can do that now that
the issue of Afghanistan has provided the opportunity for dialogue. Iran
improved its relations with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and even Iraq -- with
which it fought an eight-year war -- so the United States cannot be exempt."