But Farideh Farhi, an author and scholar on Iranian and comparativepolitics, says Iran-U.S. relations are too volatile for any one person to accomplish much.
For in addition to his higher-profile roles as a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and as a controversial commentator on Middle Eastern and international politics, Said was music critic at America's foremost left-leaning political weekly, the Nation, from 1986 until his death in 2003.