Iranians really do like us, but ...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took the United States to task at the U.N. this week, contending that a selfish America bullies the rest of the world.

Many of the citizens he represents say they don't dislike Americans, but do oppose the actions of the U.S. government.

These sentiments were nearly unanimous in some 400 interviews during the past month in two large Iranian cities — Tehran, the capital, with about 12 million people, and Shiraz, with 4 million. People of all ages and classes were interviewed, many of them in Farsi. No translators or government representatives were present.

"I hope that one day, relations get good enough that we can go study there," said Mohammad Mehdi Haydare, 21, as he sat among friends in Tehran's Mellat Park. "Americans are ordinary people," he said. "It's their government we hate. The government has strength and they use it indiscriminately."

The Iranian community in the U.S. has been estimated at around 700,000, or 1 percent of Iran's current population of nearly 70 million. Thousands of others studied in North America before the 1979 revolution that transformed Iran into a theocratic Islamic republic. People here tend to be well educated about the U.S.

Mehdi Kazerouni, 36, an English teacher in Shiraz, said he doesn't hear the slogan "Marg bar Amrica," or "Death to America," very often these days. But when he does, he shudders.

"When people say that, it's like they're saying, 'Down with our own people,' " Kazerouni said, "because there are so many Iranians in the States and the whole country is made up of foreigners."

Those old enough to remember pre-revolutionary Iran recall the exchange of people, ideas and goods between the two countries. Unlike today, American companies were present here. Students traveled back and forth.

Karim Ghavoseh said he mingled often with Americans then. He was the private driver for an engineer working for Westinghouse in Shiraz in the 1970s, and also worked as a cab driver at the Shiraz airport.

"Americans themselves are wonderful people," said Ghavoseh, 60, shaking his head over the current acrimonious relationship between Iran and the U.S. "But their government pushes the whole world around and acts conceited. Their government does what it wants in countries around the world without regard for the people in them."

"Americans were our brothers and neighbors for many years," said Hossein Ensafi Moqadem, 62, a retired military man in Tehran. "Iranians still feel that way, but now the two governments are playing with fire, and relations are getting darker every day. It's all political nonsense."

But one thing that may bother them more than anything else, said many who were interviewed, is that Americans have a backward and inaccurate view of Iranians.

"We hear that people there ask if we ride around on camels," said Shahdid Beheshti, 24, a pharmaceutical-college student in Tehran. "That's really upsetting and sticks in our minds because it seems they don't try to learn about us.

"We're normal people," he said. "We have families and girlfriends and go to school and work just like they do.

"We care about the same things. We just live on the other side of the world."

Most people interviewed said their government under Ahmadinejad does not push anti-American propaganda. There were signs in Tehran and Shiraz suggesting the opposite, though.

In the capital, the wall around the old U.S. Embassy, now converted to a library, bears signs reading "Down with USA" and "We will make America face severe defeat."

In Shiraz, an American flag was painted on a busy road in the northern section of the city, Mali Abad Street, so motorists would be forced to drive over it.

But many interviewed in Shiraz said they try to drive around the flag in the street if they can.

"We separate the people from their government, as they should for us," said Mansoor Roshtian, a taxi-stand manager in Tehran.