Barack Obama: the View From Iran

Iranians reacted positively to Barack Obama's election, saluting the choice of the American people in breaking with George Bush's policies and hoping - despite years of deep mutual mistrust - for better relations between Tehran and Washington.

The US and Iran have been locked in hostility for nearly three decades and are at odds over the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions, its support for groups like Hizbullah and Hamas and comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Israel and the Holocaust.

Passersby canvassed by the Guardian on Valiasr Avenue, Tehran's longest thoroughfare, were overwhelmingly pleased with the result and cautiously optimistic about the future.

"Obama was a good choice for Americans," said Ali Zadek, 29, a company director. "If they'd wanted confrontation with the rest of the world they would have chosen McCain. He added, half-joking: "I would like Americans to have elected someone like Ahmadinejad to be their president just so they would know how bad things are here."

Construction worker Abbas Barhadi, 50, said: "I like Obama. If he can have good relations with Iran it will be good for both nations."

Seyyid Hossein, 30, a teacher, said: "Obama's victory could improve things because he has his head on his shoulders. But I believe the regime doesn't want better relations with the US. It wants to have a big enemy to frighten people and maintain its rule."

Sergeant Siyavash Muhiti, in the camouflage uniform of the Iranian army's infantry corps, said: "We live in a global village and we need to help each other." But he warned: "Iranians don't have a good opinion of Americans. They need to accept our right to nuclear technology."

Mohmamed Reza Muslih, the director of a religious seminary sponsored by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said: "The coming of a black president shows a real change in American society."

"From now on the US will not look at other nations as second class," he said.

"Now it will probably set aside its domineering policies. This is what we hope as a third world and Islamic country. I hope for a meeting between the supreme leader and Obama, but only if the US accepts our values. Our differences with the US are not about nuclear issues or terrorism or Zionism or human rights. The main problem is how the US looks at us."

Ali Asgar Bazinejad, a 65-year-old baker, also preferred Obama to his Republican rival. "They say he is a Muslim and he is black as well. That's good because Americans used to discriminate against black people."

But Lobhat, a physiotherapist with her headscarf draped very loosely over her hair, thought Obama's win would make little difference. "American policy is the same whether Democrats or Republicans are in charge," she said.

"They only had two candidates to choose between. Not that I think Iran is any better."

Mohammed Jaafari, a young accountant, wanted Obama to launch direct talks with Iran on the nuclear issue. Sahar Hajezadeh, an adult education teacher, agreed: "We must not think in a negative way. Where there is a will there's a way."

Nasreen Vaniassad, a painter, said: "Obama is well-educated. Bush didn't have a good relationship with Iran. Its true that Ahmadinejad isn't easy, but maybe Obama will be able to work with him."