Limbert was the US ambassador to Mauritania a decade ago and more recently was the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran. Married to an Iranian woman and a fluent Farsi speaker, he has not set foot in Iran for the last 30 years, since he was freed from 444 days of captivity as a hostage.
The Rooz website recently interviewed Limbert where he suggested that it would be better for Iran and the United States to meet secretly rather than engage in the public meetings of the last three years that have produced nothing.
“It is possible that the semi-public format of these meetings is not helpful,” he said. “It is pushing the sides into posturing and taking maximalist positions for the sake of domestic politics. It appears that progress on the nuclear front is blocked and the Aliqapu [the main gate] is closed. In that case, we need to look for what the Hungarians call the kiskapu, the small gate or loophole. Doing so may mean changing the format and shifting our focus away from the nuclear program.
Limbert said the best deal the two countries could arrange would be “one arrived at through dialogue, not one that humiliates one side. In other words, we need to talk, not as friends, but as persons who have common concerns. They are not going away; neither are we. What needs to happen is for both sides to ask themselves, ‘What is in our interests and how do I achieve it?’ rather than, ‘How can I impose my will on the other side?’ People have been asking the second question for 30 years and the results have been continuing futility and frustration.”
Limbert lived in Iran in the 1960s working as Peace Corps Volunteer in Shiraz. He reminisced, telling Rooz, “I miss the people and the warmth of human contact. I miss sitting for hours outdoors on a Shiraz afternoon talking, drinking tea, eating fruit, and playing cards or backgammon. I miss my students and their wonderful curiosity and creativity. I miss the kharboozeh [melons] of Mashhad and Hamadan on a hot summer day. I miss the matrons of Shiraz coming door-to-door to arrange a marriage for their sons or nephews.”
Unlike many of the 52 hostages, Limbert says he bears no resentment against his captors and would be willing to meet with them. “At the time, they were young and emotional engineering students,” he said. “If I blame anyone, I blame the opportunistic politicians who did not take responsibility but rode this particular wave of emotion and fury.”
Limbert also dumped on the assumption of many Americans that President Ahmadi-nejad was one of those who seized the embassy. “He was among the students [from the engineering university] who originally planned the take-over of embassies but he, as I have heard from different sources, was against the take-over of the US Embassy. He had indicated that the left was more dangerous, [and] therefore, the Soviet embassy should be targeted,” Limbert said.
Limbert is the author of three books: Iran: At War with History; Shiraz in the Age of Hafez; and, most recently, Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History.