While the U.S. and Iran might never be close friends, the two nations can at least share a playground thanks to President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, according to an expert on Iranian-American relations.
“The very idea that the United States and Iran could ever sit at the same table and talk directly to each other was once deemed hopelessly naive — but today, Iran’s foreign minister and … Secretary of State John Kerry are Facebook friends,” said Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council.
Parsi, originally from the Islamic Republic of Iran, spoke before an audience of approximately 150 people at the FedEx Global Education Center about the success of the controversial Iran deal and Iranian-American relations in its aftermath.
The event was sponsored by the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, in conjunction with the Duke Islamic Studies Center, UNC Persian Studies and the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies.