The final weekend of September 2013 saw the Iranian charm school at work in full force, with a campaign comprising every component of a sophisticated public diplomacy strategy: moderate advance articles in leading newspapers signed by past and present Iranian presidents; TV interviews at the leading networks with senior female journalists (with the hijab and without); background discussions with senior analysts; non-belligerent speeches at the United Nations that said “the right things” and avoided the extreme rhetoric typical of Iran’s most recent former president; meetings of foreign ministers that were a thing of the past; and – on the way to JFK Airport – an historic telephone conversation between the Iranian and US presidents.
