Iran's elected leader are ready to listen (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

An article on Iran's internal situation, to be of special interest to our
President Mohammed Khatami team

*****************************
Clement M. Henry
Professor of Government
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712
tel 471-5121, fax 471-1061

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:12:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Gary G Sick <ggs2@columbia.edu>
To: gulf2000 list <gulf2000-list@columbia.edu>
Subject: Iran's elected leader are ready to listen

9-18-2002: The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

Iran's elected leaders are ready to listen
Elahe Sharifpour-Hicks IHT
Wednesday, September 18, 2002

The writer, Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch in New York,
contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.

Justice in Tehran

TEHRAN Iran is on the edge of imminent implosion. Poverty, unemployment,
drug addiction and prostitution are widespread among the young. People
under 34 constitute half of the country's population. Many of them voted
for the reformist president, Mohammed Khatami. Now they are deeply
disappointed.

Khatami and his supporters know that the Iranian people expect them to
deliver on their promises. In a major speech Aug. 28, the president
acknowledged that his reform initiatives have been blocked, and pledged to
take measures to implement "real democracy." Millions of Iranians hope he
can succeed. But after five years of unfulfilled promises, their hope is
wearing thin.

If there is one clear enemy of human rights and political reform in Iran
today, it is the judiciary. So when I recently met Mohammed Javad
Larijani, the deputy head of the judiciary with responsibility for
international affairs and human rights, a newly created post, I expected
that we would vehemently disagree about almost everything.

Iran's judiciary has been the most effective weapon in the hands of
conservatives under Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. It is responsible for much repression and many egregious human
rights violations.

But Larijani, a sophisticated man who speaks fluent English, made no
apologies.  He believes that both conservatives in the past and now
reformists have proved to be incompetent to run the country. I was
surprised to find myself agreeing with him.

President Khatami believes that change can only take place peacefully and
within the framework of the Iranian constitution. But it is a flawed
document that accords absolute power to the supreme leader, Ayatollah
Khamenei.

Khamenei has given his full support to the hard-liners who are behind the
shutdown of more than 85 publications in the last two years, the
imprisonment of many journalists, writers and political activists, the
crushing of student demonstrations and banning of political parties, and
the imposition of even more restrictions on everyday life.

The conservatives have warned that any challenge to the status quo will
result in bloodshed. Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani -
during whose presidency government agents killed hundreds of Iranians,
inside and outside the country, because of their political beliefs - has
reportedly said that the conservative establishment would mobilize 2
million people in its support, and would not hesitate to use its
400,000-strong private army against the people to hold on to power.

How can the United States craft a policy toward Iran that is at the same
time realistic and principled?

First, Washington must make clear that it rejects certain parts of the
political spectrum. Reformists in Tehran were shocked that the foreign
policy chief of the European Union, Javier Solaņa, met with Rafsanjani
during a recent visit to Tehran.

Clearly, it is hard for Washington to have much direct influence over
internal affairs in Iran. When President George W. Bush called Iran part
of the "axis of evil," he certainly gained the attention of all sides in
Iran's complex power struggle. In many ways, Bush was right - for more
than two decades, the Iranian government has perpetrated many cruel human
rights abuses upon its people, and that is indeed evil. On the other hand,
the saber-rattling that has accompanied Bush's use of the "axis of evil"
metaphor is deeply disturbing to Iranians, and has strengthened
hard-liners who thrive on perpetuating conflict with the West.

At the same time, the United States should not hesitate to criticize Iran
when such criticism is warranted. Khatami, while objecting to "U.S.
threats" against Iran, has made it clear that he is ready to open a
dialogue with America without preconditions. In doing so, Khatami has
distanced himself from conservatives who call it a crime to seek to
normalize relations with the United States.

The Bush administration should take Khatami at his word, and approach
Iran's elected leaders with its full range of concerns about Iranian
policy. Several of those leaders have themselves objected, in the Iranian
Parliament and elsewhere, to such practices as smuggling arms to the
Palestinian Authority or harboring Al Qaeda suspects. The United States
will find its criticism has supporters in various parts of the Iranian
government.

The problem, of course, is that Iran's in-house critics, from the
president on down, are powerless to bring about change. Still, in the
murky domain of Iranian politics, the United States should not lose sight
of the goal of helping to restore basic freedoms and human rights to the
Iranian people. The Bush administration can best do that by engaging
frankly and directly with their elected leaders.