(AFP) – Mar 20, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iranian-Americans on Friday hailed President Barack Obama's message on the Persian new year as a positive step towards healing the rift with Tehran, while others insisted that the only way forward was to oust Iran's Islamic regime.

"Wow ... that's really nice, fantastic," said Anik Arakel from her home in southern California, where she has lived for nearly 30 years, as she listened to Obama wishing the Iranian people "Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak" as they celebrated Nowruz, the Persian new year.

"'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 ... 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 remained icy, and Obama sought in his Nowruz message to thaw 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 addressed Iran's Islamic rulers, saying Washington was committed to pursuing "constructive ties" with Tehran and insisting Iran could take its "rightful place in the community of nations" if it rejected terror and embraced peace.

The video was posted on the Internet and a version with Farsi subtitles was distributed to news outlets in the Middle East, where it was due to air at around 8:00 am Iran time (0400 GMT) on Friday, the White House said.

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

He called the message "unprecedented, extremely positive" 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 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," he said.

"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.

But Rouzbeh Farhanipour, an activist of the Marze Por Gohar party, which wants a secular Iran, said Obama's message had sent the wrong message.

"Some of the people I've spoken to when they called to wish me a happy new year were upset by the speech," Farhanipour said.

What upset them was Obama's mention of the Islamic Republic and the implication that his administration has sidelined the idea of regime change, said Farhanipour, insisting that ousting the regime was "the only way forward."

"All of us believe that regime change will happen sooner or later. The Iranian people themselves will change the regime, but they need the support of the international community," he said.

The conflicting reactions to the Nowruz message reflected "disagreements, among Iranians, Iranian-Americans, and in policy circles as to whether the US government should adopt a policy of rapprochement and conciliation as opposed to a policy of confrontation" in dealing with Iran, said Babak Hoghooghi, executive director of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA).

But overall, he said, Obama's message, in which the president also lauded Iran's rich culture and quoted 13th-century Persian poet Saadi, was well received.

"Iranian-Americans very much appreciate the acknowledgement given by President Obama to the rich culture, history and heritage of Iran, and I am certain the people in Iran will also appreciate that as a gesture of goodwill toward Iranian people all around the world," he said.

"All in all, the message was well-crafted and has been well received," he said.

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