Iranian expats in US cheer fantastic Obama speech

Anik Arakel let out a heartfelt sigh of happiness as she listened to US President Barack Obama wishing the Iranian people "Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak" as they celebrate Nowruz, the Persian new year.

"Wow ... that's really nice, fantastic," she said from her home in California, where she has lived for nearly 30 years.

"'Shoma' means 'you guys' and 'mobarak' means 'congratulations'," she explained after watching the video-taped message on the White House website.

"Every US president since, I think, Ronald Reagan, has done this. They've always mentioned and congratulated Iranians on our new year, but never quite like this," Arakel said.

Reagan was elected to his first term in office in 1980, the year Washington and Iran broke off diplomatic ties.

Since then, relations between the two countries have gone steadily downhill, and Obama sought in his Nowruz message to slash through the decades of distrust and animosity with a direct appeal to the Iranian people for "renewed exchanges among our people."

Calling Nowruz "a moment of renewal," Obama also addressed Iran's Islamic rulers, and said Washington was committed to pursuing "constructive ties" with Tehran, which could take its "rightful place in the community of nations" if it renounced terror and embraced peace.

He praised Iran's "great and celebrated culture" and quoted 13th century poet, Saadi -- described by Arakel as "like Omar Khayyam, only less well known to Westerners."

"I was so excited to hear his thoughts on our culture," said Myra Arbabi, who watched the speech online with her family on Friday before sitting down with friends to a traditional Nowruz lunch of fish, rice with cilantro, parsley and dill and a vegetable souffle.

"The speech was super interesting. It was excellent. I wish him success. He has an extremely difficult job in front of him," said Arbabi, who works as a realtor in California.

A version of the video with Farsi subtitles was distributed to news outlets in the Middle East and was set to air at around 8:00 am Iran time (0400 GMT) on Friday, the White House said.

An online version was also available, with captions in English and Farsi, it said.

"I'm sure everyone in Iran has seen the message and they're all talking about it as they call each other to wish each other a happy new year. It's easy to see anything on the Internet in Iran. We have blogs and everything," Arakel said.

Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, agreed that the message from Obama was probably "the topic of conversation at every Nowruz gathering in Iran and in the United States among Iranian-Americans."

Parsi called the message "unprecedented" and "very different" to Nowruz messages made by other US presidents, in particular George W. Bush.

"Last year, president Bush gave his message to the Iranian people through Voice of America's Persian service, and said the Iranian government had declared its intent to get a nuclear weapon, which is not true," Parsi said.

Bush had lumped Iran into an "Axis of Evil" with Iraq and North Korea and led international accusations that Iran's project to build a nuclear power plant was merely a cover to develop nuclear weapons.

"This statement by Obama addressed both the people and government and did not try to play one off against the other," said Parsi.

"He used the term 'Islamic Republic,' which indicates he's setting aside regime change but not setting aside democratization.

"This was a statement in which he's creating a strategic intent of finding a positive, constructive US-Iran relationship -- very different to any statement made in the past," he said.

"This was a historic message ... an extremely positive, well-crafted, smart move by the president.

"Actions are going to be needed to move things forward but at this initial stage, when there is a need for increased trust before something substantive can happen, this was probably the best possible injection of confidence and trust into the process," he said.