On behalf of everyone here at the American Iranian Council, we wish you a warm Nowruz greetings!  Nowruz is the first day of spring and also the first day of the new Iranian calendar year, which will be 1396 on March 21 (2017).  Nowruz has been celebrated for over 3000 years, and Iranians of all religious and ethnic orientations share in the joys and prosperity it promises.  We sincerely hope that this Nowruz will usher in better US-Iran relations.

The closure of 1395 was admittedly a rocky period in US-Iran relations, with increased rhetoric on both sides, the imposition of a blanket travel ban on Iranians, ballistic missile testing by the Iranian government, and the new Trump administration putting Iran “on notice.”  Of course, rocky times are not new.  As a long-standing organization with nearly three decades of experience in this field, we recognize that US-Iran relations have always been challenging. And yet, with time and effort, real progress has been made in the past and can be made moving forward.