It comes from a few places, and it's an unfortunate circumstance. After the hostage crisis, from 1979 to 1981, or 1980 into 1981, Americans viewed Iran as an enemy, as a country that was reflexively anti-American. It had committed an international crime by taking those hostages. It was very difficult for Americans in general, from the leadership on down, to accept Iran as a country that could potentially be either an ally or at least not an enemy. Iran charts its own foreign policy, which is in conflict with American foreign policy in many areas, particularly when it comes to Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian issue and when it comes to Lebanon. In other areas the foreign policy is actually very close. Their national interests are the same as America, whether it's Afghanistan or Iraq. But it's very difficult once you identify a country and a regime as an enemy to then go back and say, well, it's actually not an enemy anymore, to tell the American people: 'You don't need to be afraid of Iran anymore.' So you have this narrative in America, particularly, that Iran is this dangerous, evil place that's against our interests, particularly when it comes to the Israeli narrative, and that's a very sensitive subject in the United States, even more so than in Europe, support for anti-Israeli groups. So that's a difficult perception to break. And then the Iranians have helped that. In the early days of the revolution by demonstrations, burning the American flag, 'down with America'', 'death to America' 'death to Britain', 'death to Europe', whatever. They have helped that perception. They've also helped by not being as open to, let's say, Western tourism, for example, not as open to Western journalists. Even though they do go and come back a lot and there even are American tourists who go to Iran, it's not as easy, it's not as easy to get visas, it's not as easy to come and go, there's not as much trade, there's not as much dialogue and interaction with Americans. So most people just have to take what the media give them, what the media are allowed to get from Iran or are able to get from Iran, and this narrative of Iran as an enemy has just sunk in, it's become 'Iran is the enemy'. The Israelis like to promote that Iran is the enemy, Iran is an existential threat to Israel, even though I personally don't believe the Israeli leaders really believe that Iran is going to build a bomb and drop it on Tel Aviv. They would kill way more Palestinians than they would kill Israelis if they did that. I don't think the Israelis think they're going to do that. In the Israeli-Palestinian issue and the Israeli-Iranian issue, Israel doesn't want another country that is opposed to it or opposed to its policies to be as powerful as they are. It's just military parroting. Israel has nuclear weapons, Iran has nuclear weapons. All of a sudden it's a showdown. You've got that issue where I don't think Israel wants to see another country be as powerful as they are, and I understand that. Nobody would want to see another country be as powerful as they are militarily when you have these conflicts going on, and particularly if somebody supports the opposite side to yours. So that's also become a part of the issue: Well, Iran supports terrorism, because they support Hezbollah and Hamas, which, as far as most Iranians, most people in the Middle East, most people in the Arab world, most people in the Muslim world don’t consider terrorist organizations in the way that we do. Not that they would say that they've never committed terrorist acts, but they don't consider them terrorist organizations the way Al-Qaida is a terrorist organization. Nihilist, that doesn't really have an agenda other than to just be terrorists. Their agenda is the liberation of Palestine, or in the case of Hezbollah, the liberation of Lebanon from Israeli occupation. So it's a different viewpoint. And as I said, on the Iranian side, we haven't helped. The Iranians haven't helped their image. They've tried on occasion, but unfortunately, the occasions that they've tried have been bad times for Americans, because President Bush was in power when Khatami was trying to present a different image for Iran and was presenting a different image and America wasn't interested in taking up the offer to try to negotiate at that time. Then President Obama comes in, and President Obama is now willing. and the Iranians feel under threat and they're not willing. So there are all these problems that exist, but this narrative of Iran being an enemy, how do you get out of that if you identify them as the enemy? If you view Sadam Hussein, for example, in Iraq, after he was identified as the enemy since the First Golf War, it was never going to be possible to make him not the enemy. And once the sanctions didn't work and this didn't work, well, you know what happened: war. Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Libya was the enemy. There was the Libya Sanctions Act, there were sanctions of death, basic

It comes from a few places, and it's an unfortunate circumstance. After the hostage crisis, from 1979 to 1981, or 1980 into 1981, Americans viewed Iran as an enemy, as a country that was reflexively anti-American. It had committed an international crime by taking those hostages. It was very difficult for Americans in general, from the leadership on down, to accept Iran as a country that could potentially be either an ally or at least not an enemy. Iran charts its own foreign policy, which is in conflict with American foreign policy in many areas, particularly when it comes to Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian issue and when it comes to Lebanon. In other areas the foreign policy is actually very close. Their national interests are the same as America, whether it's Afghanistan or Iraq. But it's very difficult once you identify a country and a regime as an enemy to then go back and say, well, it's actually not an enemy anymore, to tell the American people: 'You don't need to be afraid of Iran anymore.' So you have this narrative in America, particularly, that Iran is this dangerous, evil place that's against our interests, particularly when it comes to the Israeli narrative, and that's a very sensitive subject in the United States, even more so than in Europe, support for anti-Israeli groups. So that's a difficult perception to break. And then the Iranians have helped that. In the early days of the revolution by demonstrations, burning the American flag, 'down with America'', 'death to America' 'death to Britain', 'death to Europe', whatever. They have helped that perception. They've also helped by not being as open to, let's say, Western tourism, for example, not as open to Western journalists. Even though they do go and come back a lot and there even are American tourists who go to Iran, it's not as easy, it's not as easy to get visas, it's not as easy to come and go, there's not as much trade, there's not as much dialogue and interaction with Americans. So most people just have to take what the media give them, what the media are allowed to get from Iran or are able to get from Iran, and this narrative of Iran as an enemy has just sunk in, it's become 'Iran is the enemy'. The Israelis like to promote that Iran is the enemy, Iran is an existential threat to Israel, even though I personally don't believe the Israeli leaders really believe that Iran is going to build a bomb and drop it on Tel Aviv. They would kill way more Palestinians than they would kill Israelis if they did that. I don't think the Israelis think they're going to do that. In the Israeli-Palestinian issue and the Israeli-Iranian issue, Israel doesn't want another country that is opposed to it or opposed to its policies to be as powerful as they are. It's just military parroting. Israel has nuclear weapons, Iran has nuclear weapons. All of a sudden it's a showdown. You've got that issue where I don't think Israel wants to see another country be as powerful as they are, and I understand that. Nobody would want to see another country be as powerful as they are militarily when you have these conflicts going on, and particularly if somebody supports the opposite side to yours. So that's also become a part of the issue: Well, Iran supports terrorism, because they support Hezbollah and Hamas, which, as far as most Iranians, most people in the Middle East, most people in the Arab world, most people in the Muslim world don’t consider terrorist organizations in the way that we do. Not that they would say that they've never committed terrorist acts, but they don't consider them terrorist organizations the way Al-Qaida is a terrorist organization. Nihilist, that doesn't really have an agenda other than to just be terrorists. Their agenda is the liberation of Palestine, or in the case of Hezbollah, the liberation of Lebanon from Israeli occupation. So it's a different viewpoint. And as I said, on the Iranian side, we haven't helped. The Iranians haven't helped their image. They've tried on occasion, but unfortunately, the occasions that they've tried have been bad times for Americans, because President Bush was in power when Khatami was trying to present a different image for Iran and was presenting a different image and America wasn't interested in taking up the offer to try to negotiate at that time. Then President Obama comes in, and President Obama is now willing. and the Iranians feel under threat and they're not willing. So there are all these problems that exist, but this narrative of Iran being an enemy, how do you get out of that if you identify them as the enemy? If you view Sadam Hussein, for example, in Iraq, after he was identified as the enemy since the First Golf War, it was never going to be possible to make him not the enemy. And once the sanctions didn't work and this didn't work, well, you know what happened: war. Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. Libya was the enemy. There was the Libya Sanctions Act, there were sanctions of death, basic