Group seeks to organize American experts on historic preservation.
By: Jeff Milgram
A Princeton-based group hopes to organize American experts on historic preservation to help the Iranian government rebuild the centuries-old citadel of Bam, largely destroyed in an earthquake that killed an estimated 28,000 people last Friday.
And Hooshang Amirahmadi, the president of the American-Iranian Council and professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers, said American relief efforts will help open a dialogue between the United States and Iran.
On Tuesday, Iran’s President Mohammad Khatami thanked the United States for its help, but said relations between the two countries would not change.
"I don’t think this incident will change our relations with the United States," President Khatami said. "In incidents like this, governments normally do not consider their differences. But this has got nothing to do with political issues. The problems in Iran-U.S. relations are rooted in history."
But Dr. Amirahmadi believes this is far from the final word.
"The bottom line is the help opens up an opportunity for dialogue," he said.
However, Dr. Amirahmadi said the Iranian government is too preoccupied with the devastation in Bam, a city of 80,000 people located in southeastern Iran, to open talks with the United States now.
"That statement does not imply that Tehran is not interested in a dialogue with the U.S.," Dr. Amirahmadi said.
He said the United States is open to restoring some dialogue because of positive moves by the Islamic government. Iranian officials have agreed to permit snap inspections of its nuclear energy program, have made overtures to moderate Arab government and accepted direct American help, including search-and-rescue teams, medical supplies and relief supplies.
Dr. Amirahmadi said he was not surprised that Iran permitted U.S. military aircraft to land with the supplies. They were the first U.S. military planes to land in Iran in more than 20 years. Diplomatic relations were broken when Iranian militants occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 American diplomats hostage for more than 400 days in 1979.
The recent earthquake registered 6.6 on the Richter Scale, trapping tens of thousands of people in their homes and killing entire families.
President Khatami vowed to rebuild Bam, which was 70 percent destroyed, within two years.
Dr. Amirahmadi is going to hold discussions with experts of Iranian heritage and historic preservation from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, and experts from Cornell, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on ways to reconstruct the citadel, called the Arg-e-Bam, the largest mud-brick structure in the world, most of which was heavily damaged in the quake.
"The human tragedy of Bam is compounded by the loss of Arg-e-Bam the ancient citadel that housed the city government when the Silk Road was the vital artery of trade between the Far East and Europe," Dr. Amirahmadi said in a letter to members of the American-Iranian Council, a research and policy think tank on issues between the two countries. "Two thousand years old, the castle was the largest mud-brick building in the world and being considered for recognition as an official World Heritage site."
The massive structure consists of four parts, 38 watchtowers, a moat and huge rampart. The complex contains a public bath, a gymnasium, a garrison, a stable, a jail, the governing palace and the governor’s house.
Dr. Amirahmadi is encouraging Americans to contribute to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent or the United Nations, both of which have established procedures for donations to various relief efforts.
The council cannot by law transfer money directly to Iran. "We are not directly raising money," Dr. Amirahmadi said. "It is illegal."
The American-Iranian Council can be contacted at (609) 252-9099.