In a dramatic turnabout, Iran now says that the American and Israeli peoples are friends of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Masha’ie recently made the comment at, of all places, the tourist fair in Tehran.

At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described Israel as an evil nation that soon will be wiped off the face of the Earth, Masha’ie now says that “today Iran is friendly with the peoples of America and Israel”. He went on to say that “we regard the people of America to be the highest ranking in the world”.

If we are to take these utterances by the Iranian vice president seriously, they need to be interpreted in the context of the ongoing standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme and Tehran’s insistence on continuing its uranium enrichment programme despite the recent negotiations held in Geneva between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other Western representatives, including US Undersecretary of State William Burns, and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator that ended in a stalemate.

It appears that Iran wants to draw a wedge between the governments that are hostile to it and their respective citizens, notably Americans and Israelis, by going over the heads of these governments and adopting a friendly posture towards their respective peoples.

Iran is determined to pursue its uranium enrichment programme and perhaps acquire nuclear weapons and seeks the understanding of ordinary Americans and Israelis.

Obviously Iran’s bid to go nuclear can be better marketed if it appears as a friendly nation to the peoples of its traditional foes.

To be sure, one of the worst fears of many countries is that once Iran acquires nuclear warheads for its long-range missiles it will use them against the Israeli people and US allies in the region.

Iran, therefore, is seeking to dispel these fears in order to make its nuclear programme more acceptable worldwide.

These tactics, however, will not hold much water as long as Tehran remains defiant of the international community’s demands to stop its uranium enrichment programme and accept Western countries’ offers of more material aid and the shipments of enriched uranium produced outside Iran.

Not less important is for Iran to drop its hostile perspectives towards the countries of the region and stop its threats against them.