Iran and US use football to score diplomatic goals

It wasn't by chance that President Clinton and the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, made speeches friendly to Iran in the run-up to Sunday night's Iran-US World Cup match.

Ms Albright began the initiative on June 17th, when she publicly hoped for "normal relations" between the two countries. President Clinton confirmed the softer approach the following day, saying that Iran was changing for the better "and we want to support it". Just hours before Sunday's match, Ms Albright said it was "understandable" that Iranians felt resentment towards the US.

Would the meeting of Iranian and US teams in the Lyon stadium have been so emotionally charged without Washington's verbal groundwork? The Iranians presented bouquets of white flowers and a silver tea tray to the US team, receiving triangular banners from their opponents.

Instead of posing as two separate teams for photographers, the Iranians and Americans put their arms around each others' shoulders. Many in the stands were crying. For the Iranians, it meant a return to normality, acceptance in the eyes of the world.

For the US, it signified a willingness to consign the wretched saga of the 444-day captivity of 52 US diplomats in Tehran in 1979 and 1980 to the past. Football diplomacy - like ping-pong diplomacy in 1970s China - had triumphed.

Above all, the rapprochement marks the end of the policy of "dual containment" hatched by pro-Israeli US officials in 1990 to cripple both Iran and Iraq. Nearly 20 years of US hostility and intelligence operations aimed at destabilising Tehran have failed to destroy the regime.

With Washington now convinced that the Israeli Prime Minister is sabotaging peace between Arabs and Israelis, it is difficult for the Clinton administration to accuse Tehran of blocking peace.

The region is a dangerous one - endemic civil war in Afghanistan and the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan make Iran look rational by comparison. The economic stakes are also high: too: next month the Iranian government will launch 20 international bids for tender for contracts worth $6 billion, and the Iranian oil company, NIOC, has said it would welcome US participation.

Sunday night's match doubtless meant more to Iran than it did to the US. The trial on trumped-up corruption charges of Tehran's mayor was postponed until after the match to avoid distracting the Iranian public.

Men and women celebrated the 2-1 win in the streets of Tehran until dawn yesterday.

The US has promised Iran it would strictly enforce a law against contacts with the Mujahideen Khalq opposition movement.