Iran: Baha’i Situation Empower Totalitarian Leadership
June 18th, 2010 by Farid
While much of the focus from the international community is on Iran’s enrichment of its nuclear fuel and the strategic implications of the Green Movement, human rights concerns continue over the 7 Baha’i leaders who have been imprisoned in Iran for over 2 years. They have been charged with espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, and “corruption on earth,” according to the Baha’i World News Service. After a recent trial, they were again returned to Evin Prison. According to a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Wahied Wahdat-Hagh – Senior fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels – “The treatment of the Bahai by the current clerical government in Iran is more sinister and complex than a basic lack of religious tolerance: it is an organized, and systematic, and well-documented repression aimed at eliminating the community from the annals of Iranian history.”
Baha’i civil rights do not exist in Iran, according to Wahdat-Hagh. He explains that “the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council laid out a plan to restrict the education, employment, and cultural status of anyone who identifies publicly as a Bahai.” They have also been banned from attaining work permits in several fields, including tourism and the press. Wahdat-Hagh argues that “failure to defend the rights of the Bahai now will only further empower Iran’s totalitarian leadership, and leave the future of the Bahai and of Iranian freedom in even greater doubt, because they are indivisible.”
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Iran | Comment »
Green Movement in Iran Receives 2010 NED Democracy Award
June 18th, 2010 by Farid
“As a result of the Green Movement’s simple call for the Iranian government to accord the people the decent respect that is their right, it has connected with the global democratic movement, which has been called upon to embrace the people of Iran and to make their struggle its own,” is one of the reasons given by the National Endowment for Democracy for honoring the Green Movement with the 2010 Democracy Award last Thursday.
Participants in the award ceremony included the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, author Azar Nafisi, Simin Behbahani, and Mahnaz Afkhami, and many others. Speaking for President Obama, Samantha Power read his remarks congratulating the Green Movement “The courage of so many Iranians in the face of severe repression is inspiring. It reminds us of democratic movements that have brought greater freedom and respect for universal rights to every region of the world. It causes us to look forward to the day when Iranians will be able to speak freely, assemble without fear, and express their views without facing retribution - a day when the Iranian government will represent and foster not fear, but instead the aspirations of its own people,” said President Obama.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Events, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Protests, Reform | Comment »
Brookings: “Turkey and Iran - Assessing the New Regional Diplomacy”
June 17th, 2010 by Farid
The Brookings Institution held a conference on Turkey-Iran relations and their implications for U.S. policy in the Middle East. The panel of experts included journalist and author Stephen Kinzer, who has a new book published on this particular issue called Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America’s Future; Suzanne Maloney, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and Ömer Taspinar, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
(POMED’s full notes of the event continue below, or read the notes as a pdf document)
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Iran, Turkey | Comment »
Iran: Green Movement Charter Released
June 16th, 2010 by Farid
Yesterday, one of the most prominent leaders of the Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi, released what he calls a Charter for the Green Movement that underlines the views and demands of the Green Movement. “At the beginning of the second year of the Movement, and at the recommendation of some friends, a Charter for strengthening the collective identity of the Green Movement has been prepared that is now presented to you,” said Mousavi, also emphasizing the importance of improving it to fulfill the wishes and demands of the people. “This Charter is a first step and, God willing, over the course of its evolution, the Green Movement will make it more complete and more beautiful,” he proclaimed.
The Charter is organized into several key topics including the root cause and goals of the movement, the fundamental solutions, the green identity, and values of the Green Movement. All of these topics are followed by subcategories defining the Green Movement’s goals and pursuits.
Posted in Iran | Comment »
POMED Rejects Distortion of Our Online Reporting
June 14th, 2010 by Farid
Recently, The Fars News Agency misrepresented one of POMED’s notes summarizing a public event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in which former Austrian Ambassador Michael Postl was misquoted (In Farsi) as saying that “The Austrian Ambassador Confesses that 22 European Embassies Were Spying…” Another news source, tabnak.com, published an article (In Farsi) on their website with the title “22 Embassies Spying in Tehran,” also referencing our notes.
In reality, POMED’s notes stated the following regarding Ambassador Postl’s remarks:
He then shifted to the role of the EU, which was represented by 22 embassies in Tehran out of 27 member states. In the weeks following the election, the EU had daily crisis meetings and called on Iran to investigate the results, allow unrestricted access to journalists, cease violent crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations, and guarantee the right of assembly. “We got a lot of information from twitter and also foreign embassies who had diplomats out on the street,” he recalled. “But we were also intimidated and asked by the Iranians formally to not go out and report, that this was an internal situation and there should be any interference by foreigners.”
The EU also held four rounds of dialogue, with a particular focus on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Since 2004, Postl said, the EU has worked for a diplomatic solution
to Iran’s nuclear program. But in order to understand Iranian foreign policy, “one has to understand Iran’s domestic political situation.”
It is clear that the reporting by Fars News Agency and by tabnak.com misrepresents Ambassador Postl’s remarks according to POMED’s summary of the event. Please click here for the full, original version of POMED’s notes.
POMED rejects and condemns any distortion of the content of POMED’s publications or online materials and urges the Fars News Agency and tabnak.com to engage in honest reporting that adheres to journalistic integrity.
Posted in Iran, Journalism, Middle Eastern Media | Comment »
Iran: Green Movement Still Moving?
June 14th, 2010 by Farid
Despite the opposition’s cancellation of Saturday’s protests marking the one-year anniversary of the disputed presidential elections, there were nonetheless small, scattered protests, during which 91 people were arrested in the streets of Tehran. In an e-mail interview between reformist leader Mehdi Karoubi and CNN, Karoubi proclaimed, “the Green Movement today is stronger and more mature than last year.” Karoubi added that the future of Iran is in the hands of the people and the success of the Green Movement is secured by the diverse participation of its population.
In today’s interview with Mehdi Karroubi by LeMonde, he stated, “I am determined to bear everything to continue the fight…what is happening in Iran is a real betrayal of the people and the ideals of the revolution.” This was said after the attack on him by a group of thugs in Qom. In contrast to this optimism, Con Coughlin argues in the Telegraph that “the Green Movement, of course, is nothing like the force it was last year, when it succeeded in mobilising hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters, who brought large swathes of the country to a standstill.”
However, according to an interesting piece by Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the obstacles facing the Green Movement are not simply the lack of mobilization into the street. Sadjadpour lists five key challenges that the Green Movement must overcome:
1. Go beyond street protests- also to emphasize the percentage of people willing to sacrifice for their cause rather than the mere number of protesters.
2. Organize abroad
3. Reach out to “Ali the plumber”- meaning that the the Green Movement must reach out to the working-class Iranians who are currently in favor of Ahmadinejad
4. Steer clear of Khomeini’s legacy- as Sadjadpour argues “No matter how you slice it, Khomeini can never be a credible or inspiring symbol for a movement that purports to champion democracy and human rights.”
5. Pick up the pace
In today’s piece by Juan Cole, the Green Movement is neither dead or unimportant. “It can survive and be influential if it finds new tactics or repertoires of sustainable collective action that cannot so easily be forestalled by the security forces, and if it identifies some simple, practical change it wants legislated other than the holding of new elections.”Nevertheless, Cole points out several concerns to the Obama administration in its policies to Iran: The U.S. will probably need to engage with a fairly stable regime in Iran and direct negotiations do not constitute betrayal of the Green Movement, do not expect any radical change in the nuclear issue if the Green Movement comes to power, and any strike on Iran by the U.S. or Israel will destroy any hope for political change reforms in Iran.
Posted in Elections, Events, Iran, Reform, US politics | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Iran: One Year After Elections”
June 12th, 2010 by Farid
The Democracy Council held a briefing on Capitol Hill covering the outcomes in Iran and U.S. Iranian relations in the aftermath of the contested presidential election. The briefing — “Iran: One Year After Elections” — was organized in distinct segments with different panels that covered a range of issues. Topics included human rights & civil society activity, Iran’s international activity & influence, access to information/independent media & the Green Movement, and implications for U.S. policy.
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Posted in Elections, Iran, Protests, US foreign policy, sanctions | 1 Comment »
Iran: How Will UN Sanctions Impact Green Movement?
June 11th, 2010 by Jennifer
The United Nations adopted a fourth round of sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program on Wednesday, rekindling controversy within the international community and sparking debate on whether the tougher sanctions will ultimately prove effective in deterring Iran’s nuclear program. The hard-won decision was not unanimous, with twelve of the fifteen nations on the Council voting in favor of the measure, while Turkey and Brazil opposed it and Lebanon abstained. Iranian officials responded alternately with derision and defiance toward the decision: Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called the sanctions “annoying flies,” while Iran’s envoy to the UN, Mohammad Khazee, vowed that his country would “never bow” to external pressure.
Mark Dubowitz and Benjamin Weinthal, writing in Slate magazine, praise the UN measure, arguing that sanctions hold the potential to help Iran’s pro-democracy Green Movement. Drawing parallels to the critical role played by economic sanctions in overturning South Africa’s Apartheid regime in the 1990s, Dubowitz and Weinthal claim that “a growing number of key opinion-makers and activists in the Green Movement support biting sanctions on the Iranian energy sector” as a means to weaken the regime and strengthen pro-democracy elements inside the country.
On the other hand, Ramin Jahanbegloo writing in the Christian Science Monitor views sanctions as a distraction from the task of encouraging democracy in Iran, not a means to achieve it. Proposing that the focus of U.S. and international efforts in Iran should shift from sanctions to support for human rights and democratic activism, Jahanbegloo calls sanctions “a secondary issue” and argues that “challenging the moral and political legitimacy of violence by the Iranian state against its own citizens ought to be the urgent priority of the international community.” Omid Nouripour, a German-Iranian member of the German parliament for the opposition Greens, echoed this sentiment today, suggesting that the international community can better weaken President Ahamdinejad at home by focusing on combating Iranian human rights violations rather than by pursuing sanctions.
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, US foreign policy, United Nations, sanctions | Comment »
Legislation: New House Resolution on Human Rights in Iran
June 11th, 2010 by Jennifer
Yesterday, Rep. Filner (D-CA) introduced H.Res.1431, a resolution “Calling for an end to the violence, unlawful arrests, torture, and ill treatment perpetrated against Iranian citizens, as well as the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Iran.” The resolution calls on the administration to support democracy and human rights in Iran, to apply sanctions against individuals affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and to remove the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. The resolution is co-sponsored by Rep. Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and Rep. Rohrabacher (R-CA).
Posted in Human Rights, Iran, Legislation | Comment »
Iran: Green Movement Not Really Backing Down
June 10th, 2010 by Farid
The Iranian opposition movement led by Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi has cancelled the protests on June 12 that would commemorate last year’s highly contested election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the presidency.
In statement from the Facebook page of Zahra Rahnavard, Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s wife (for those of you who use Facebook please click here to go to her page), the leaders said: “It is self-deceptive and naive to believe that in [the Government’s] artillery with all the threats, insults, and lies, [it was] able to repress and subjugate people’s protest movement.” They added that “The true honour belongs to those who, despite all the threats, dangers, and insecurities and knowing the potential life-threatening and financial consequences, still have not given up on their rightful protest.”
In an article for Radio Free Europe, senior researcher at the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies in London, Mehdi Khonsari, criticizes the two men by claiming that they will lose credibility as leaders of the opposition as they pledge allegiance to the current regime. Mohsen Sazegara however, one of the founders of the IRGC and current president of the Research Institute for Contemporary Iran in Washington D.C., argues that maintaining a pretense of loyalty to the system might be more beneficial in the long-run than to cling to radical demands of the government. Dr. Ali Ansari, Director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University agrees with Sazegara saying, “what it means is that when they are talking to members of the elite, who may be a little bit wary of moving, it feels as if it is part of one agenda, still part of the legacy.”
In his latest post at the Daily Beast, Reza Aslan explains that the Green Movement will be successful as two primary pillars of the Iranian government’s legitimacy crumble: its role as the locus of Islamic morality and the will of the population. According to Aslan, “the Islamic Republic came into existence on the heels of a popular uprising. It knows better than anyone the power of the Iranian people, which is why it has thus far learned to bend (but not break) when confronted with the popular will of its citizens.” He also argues that the regime’s legitimacy as providing religious morale for the country has vanished due to greater criticism from senior clergy in Qom and further militarization of the political spectrum. Aslan argues that if anything changes in Iran,we should “thank the Green Movement, not another round of useless sanctions.”
Posted in Elections, Events, Iran, Protests | Comment »
Iran Report: The Abuse of Civil Society
June 9th, 2010 by Farid
Arseh Sevom (”Third Sphere” in Farsi) — a non-governmental organization based in Amesterdam — has published a new report that “does not deal with each individual or organizational case, but looks at the underlying patterns of abuses that are designed to target whole sectors of society through the harassment of individuals and organizations.”
Please click here for a full pdf version of the report.
The report describes these patterns of abuse of Iranian civil society from the time Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President in 2005 to present time and covers the following topics:
- The tentative rise of civil society
- Struggle between reform and suppression
- The 2005 elections
- The emergence of a new political class
- Velvet revolution
- Struggle for the soul of Iran
- From green wave to civil rights: post-presidential elections (2009)
- Stifling women’s voices
- Reform is criminalized
- State control of workers
- The attack on human rights defenders
- Basij student movements are the only legitimate ones
- “Iran is the freest country in the world”
- Civil society, civil no more
- Recommendations
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Iran | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Taking Tehran’s Temperature: One Year On”
June 9th, 2010 by Farid
Yesterday afternoon, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a conference focused on the aftermath of last year’s presidential elections and where Tehran is headed now. The panel, moderated by Steve Inskeep of National Public Radio, included: Dr. Abbas Milani of Stanford University, Gary Sick, who served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan and is currently senior research scholar at SIPA’s Middle East Institute, and Karim Sadjadpour, Associate at the Carnegie Endowment.
POMED’s full notes on the event are available as a pdf, or continue reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Human Rights, Iran, Protests | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Iran: The Year of Reckoning”
June 4th, 2010 by Josh
Earlier today, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted an event to explore the last year of Iranian politics and U.S. diplomacy toward the Iranian regime. There were two panels of experts, each highlighting a different component of either geopolitics or internal Iranian social forces. The first, moderated by professor Shaul Bakhash of George Mason University, included: Michael Postl, former Ambassador of the Austrian Republic to Iran; and Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and current professor at Harvard. The second panel, moderated by professor Kaveh Ehsani from DePaul University, included: Farideh Farhi, independent scholar and affiliate graduate faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; and Suzanne Malone, senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Click here for POMED’s notes in PDF, or continue reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Diplomacy, Elections, Freedom, Iran, Multilateralism, Reform, Terrorism, US foreign policy, United Nations, sanctions | 1 Comment »
Iran: Government Crackdown Ahead of Protests?
June 3rd, 2010 by Farid
As the Green Movement prepares to gather in the streets of Tehran to mark the anniversary of last year’s controversial presidential election, the Iranian government is preparing for the 21st anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Friday. According to Iranian media outlets, approximately 5 million people will attend the ceremony. Khomeini’s family usually organizes the event, but this year the IRGC have taken over this responsibility, excluding Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of the Assembly of Experts, former President Mohammad Khatami, and former Prime Minister Mousavi from the ceremony. Additionally, the Iranian government has not yet called for any demonstrations against the Israeli raid of the Gaza flotilla.
According to an interesting piece by Iranian-Israeli analyst Meir Javedanfar, the reluctance to call for demonstrations is due to Ayatollah Khamenei’s fear of another Qods Day scenario, in which the mobilization turned into an opposition rally against his own government.
On June 12, only a few days after the anniversary of Khomeini’s death, many observers believe that the Green Movement will organize large demonstrations throughout Tehran. According to sources, the Iranian government has already started to crack down on people by calling on 2 million paramilitary forces to station in Tehran and moral police have more frequently stopped women to enforce modesty rules.
However, despite the many obstacles facing the Green Movement in the upcoming days, Karim Sadjadpour argues that the Iranian people’s goal for democracy will withstand time. He also identifies two fundamental challenges facing U.S. policy toward Iran:
- The difficulty of trying to reach accommodation with the Iranian regime, while “enmity toward the U.S. has become a central part of the Islamic Republic’s identity.”
- How to support human rights groups and promoters of advocacy within Iran without putting their independence in jeopardy.
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Elections, Events, Human Rights, Iran, Protests, Reform, US foreign policy | Comment »
Obama’s Cairo Speech: Assessing the Relationship Between Rhetoric and Action
June 2nd, 2010 by Josh
Ahead of the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s Cairo address, Scott Carpenter and Dina Guirguis of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy unpack the last twelve months of Middle East engagement with respect to the seven core issues identified in the speech as paramount to U.S.-Muslim relations: the need to confront violent extremism; the Arab-Israeli conflict; Iran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons; democracy; religious freedom; women’s rights; and economic development.
Overall, Carpenter and Guirguis conclude that “tangible deliverables from the Cairo address were in short supply.” Perhaps recognizing this reality, the administration has spent the last few months “reframing the speech’s intent and legacy” away from “outreach to Muslims” and toward a notion of “global engagement” that articulated a “generational mission statement” rather than a series of initiatives. “In this context,” the authors write, “the issuance of a new National Security Strategy (NSS) just days before the Cairo anniversary is apparently no coincidence.” Yet even though the NSS strengthens what Carpenter and Guirguis view as the speech’s relative deficiencies, “Washington’s strategy remains open to the same critique as the original Cairo address.”
Posted in Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Israel, Mideast Peace Plan, Reform, Terrorism, US foreign policy, Women | Comment »
Iran: Surge in Social Crackdowns
June 2nd, 2010 by Josh
According to a Persia House analysis [subscription required], Iranian police, Basij paramilitary forces, and women in black chadors are increasingly engaging in “morality patrols” to harass females who do not adhere to the government’s strict social codes. Persia House notes that this surge appears to signal a sharp u-turn in policy from the last two months, during which the Iranian regime had been “more willing than usual to ignore social infractions—like improper veiling and drinking alcohol—in order to focus their attention on clamping down on political dissent.” Yet regardless of the duration of this current social campaign, “the extent to which the government would attempt to restrain and constrain society will indicate the amount of pressure the hardline clergy is still able to exert on Iranian officials” – pressure which, if significant, “would suggest that Iran’s conservative clerics have yet to be completely sidelined by the coterie of ‘worldly’ IRGC members currently surrounding President Ahmadinejad.”
In related news, Iranian authorities have reportedly deployed two million Basij militia throughout Tehran in an effort to preempt the upcoming protests that many believe are sure to erupt on June 12 — the anniversary of last year’s disputed presidential election.
Posted in Elections, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Military, Women | Comment »
Iran: New Report on Post-Election Perpetrators
June 2nd, 2010 by Farid
The U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has published a fascinating new 36-page report [PDF] that includes detailed profiles of fifteen of the most prominent perpetrators of the violent crackdown that followed the June 2009 elections. This list includes Hossein Taeb, Commander of the Basij Forces during the elections, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, Minister of Intelligence and current General Prosecutor, and Yadollah Javani, Head of the IRGC Political Office. The report includes background information on each person and describes the specific roles they played in the post-election crack-down.
Posted in Elections, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran | Comment »
POMED Notes: “One Year After Cairo: Has U.S. Engagement Improved the Prospects for Reform in the Arab World?”
May 26th, 2010 by Josh
Earlier today, Freedom House and the Project on Middle East Democracy co-hosted an event at the Capitol Visitor Center to explore the effects of President Obama’s new approach to the Arab World, the current challenges for democracy and human rights in the region, and the prospects for changes in U.S. policy to bring about a lasting impact. Tamara Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, provided remarks on how the president’s Cairo speech has shaped the last year of Middle East policy. Deputy Director of Freedom House Thomas. O Melia then moderated a group of 3 panelists: Dina Guirguis, Research Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Andrew Albertson, Executive Director of POMED; and Stephen Grand, Director of the U.S. Relations with the Islamic World project at the Brookings Institution.
Click here for POMED’s notes in PDF, or continue reading below the fold.
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Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Egypt, Elections, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Multilateralism, Political Parties, Reform, US foreign policy, Women, Yemen | 2 Comments »
Iran: Turkey and Brazil’s Challenge to the U.S. Nuclear Game Plan
May 26th, 2010 by Chanan
Ahmet Davutoglu and Celso Amorim, the respective foreign ministers for Turkey and Brazil, took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times today to spell out the rationale for, and importance of, the May 17th nuclear fuel swap deal. In a piece called “Giving Diplomacy a Chance,” the two argue that they are in full support for a nuclear-free world and that any attempt to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state will only be successful through “result-oriented negotiations.” They explain: “There is only one viable solution to disagreements with Iran over its nuclear program, and that is a negotiated diplomatic solution.”
The day prior, however, Thomas Friedman, expressed his utter disgust for this deal perpetuated by two nascent democracies. “Is there anything uglier,” he asks, “than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a Holocaust-denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the U.S. and show that they, too, can play at the big power table?” Friedman continues that while halting Iran’s budding nuclear program should remain a priority for the international community, it mustn’t get in the way of support for the Green Movement, which he believes is “the most important, self-generated, democracy movement to appear in the Middle East in decades.” He concluded that a democratic Iran with a bomb is a far better scenario than an authoritarian Iran with a bomb.
The Arabist’s Issandr El Amrani finds Friedman to be nothing short of hypocritical. He argues that “the US backs plenty of undemocratic countries for much worse reasons that Brazil’s desire to play a role on the world stage and Turkey doing the same as well as trying to avoid a war on its borders.” He also asserts that he “would rather see a democratic Iran with the bomb rather than an autocratic Iran without it.”
Nonetheless, Foreign Policy’s James Traub thinks the U.S. “overrates the salience of democracy to foreign policy” and that the evolution of independent-minded maturing middle power democracies, such as Turkey and Brazil, is proof that a synonymous type of government won’t necessarily produce synonymous foreign policy interests. This inherent shift away from uni-polarity, writes Graham E. Fuller, should be applauded. “Shouldn’t the world welcome the actions of two significant, responsible, democratic, and rational states to intervene and help check the foolishnesses of decades of US policy?”
Posted in Concert of Democracies, Diplomacy, Iran, Turkey, US foreign policy, Uncategorized | Comment »
Iran: How Does a “Covert War” Affect Ongoing Negotiations?
May 25th, 2010 by Josh
One day after Iran formally submitted its trilateral nuclear fuel plan to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the New York Times reports that General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command in the Middle East and Central Asia, signed a secret directive to authorize a broad expansion of clandestine military activity to counter threats in Iran and other regional countries. This initiative will, according to the Times’ Mark Mazzetti, intensify the program of covert operations first instituted under former President George W. Bush.
Accusing President Obama of flagrantly discarding his rhetoric of “mutual respect,” Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett worry that the NYT article “raises urgent and disturbing questions about the direction of America’s Iran policy” under the current administration. They believe that the order needlessly heightens the Iranian regime’s sensitivity toward innocent foreign academics and others who visit for purely innocuous reasons, thereby exacerbating the risks for those Americans who choose to travel to Iran. But this “covert war” may carry other consequences as well. “[The administration is] further eroding the already deteriorating prospects for an improvement in U.S.-Iranian relations—and increasing the chances of an eventual U.S.-Iranian military confrontation,” the Leveretts write.
At The Washington Note, Andrew Lebovich draws attention to a piece by Georgetown professor Charles Kupchan in April’s Foreign Affairs, in which he argues that sustained and persistent dialogue can positively resolve conflicts over time. “Kupchan is right to point out that breakthroughs with hostile countries often occur not as a result of threats or harsh measures alone,” Lebovich says, “but as part of an ongoing and sometimes halting process that utilizes both carrots and sticks to advance our end goal.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Iran, Military, US foreign policy | Comment »
