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Weekly Commentary
EU’s Appeasement
of Tehran Undercuts Trans-Atlantic Unity
It seems rather doubtful that President Bush’s current European
tour could bridge the trans-Atlantic gap with respect to
Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and the overall Iran policy.
The EU’s big-3, France, Germany, and Britain, would be naïve to
expect the United States to join the EU’s fellowship of
appeasement of Iran’s ruling regime.
The EU’s approach has appropriately been viewed by many in
Washington as a Chamberlainesque appeasement of the mullahs,
bolstering their tyrannical rule rather than dissuading them
from continued suppression of dissent or advancing their nuclear
program.
The EU has labored to explain away its approach in terms of a
“realist” view of the Iran’s political landscape, blaming its
failure not on Tehran’s continued belligerence but on
Washington’s refusal to join a charade billed as nuclear
diplomacy with Tehran rulers. The effort has been futile judging
from the firm tone and substance of remarks by the US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice during her European visit earlier this
month.
The latest attempt at justifying EU’s Iran policy came last week
by a member of the French Senate in the International Herald
Tribune. Mr. Jean François-Poncet wrote that the EU’s big-3 are
negotiating with the mullahs “not because of appeasement or
weakness” but “because they believe that Iran aspires to escape
from its economic and political isolation and is prepared to pay
a high price to do so.” This shows how flawed the EU’s view of
Tehran is. Iran’s economic woes are due to endemic corruption
running in all layers of the Tehran’s officialdom not due to a
lack of foreign trade. The country is flushed with money from
higher oil-prices.
Rather than admitting to the futility of diplomatic negotiations
with a regime, which is the “most active state sponsor of
terrorism” and runs a reign of terror at home, Mr. Poncet opined
that an agreement would be reached “only if the United States
becomes involved in the process, directly or indirectly.”
Unaware that there were by-partisan initiatives both in the US
Senate and the House of Representatives to tighten the existing
sanction regimes against the nuclear-craved Tehran, he then
pleaded for “at least a partial lifting of the American embargo,
which prevents Europe from delivering the equipment, notably the
Airbus, and the advanced technologies that Iran wants.”
The Europeans are using the pretext of helping Iran’s economy to
secure lucrative trade with mullahs. French dailies wrote this
week that the Total-ELF-Fina oil giants had a net profit of
$11bn in 2004, the largest profit by any oil company in the
world this year.
The EU should not expect Washington to accept this absurd logic,
which only empowers a rogue regime to have better access to cash
and technology to advance its nuclear weapons program, finance
its terror network in the Middle East and improve its dreadful
machinery of suppression at home.
The strategic choice by EU’s big-3 in regards to policy toward
Iran can be summed up thus: appease the mullahs; discount the
democracy movement seeking regime change and blacklist and even
suppress the democratic opposition abroad, as the French
government did two weeks ago by canceling a would-be largest
rally of anti-regime Iranians abroad.
Washington cannot be a party to this dangerous and shameful
approach. Indeed, there are signs of a rude awakening in
Washington to this danger. Acknowledging the past errors in U.S.
foreign policy that viewed support for human rights in “distant
lands” contrary to its interests, the President Bush stated in
his inauguration speech last month that “America's vital
interests and our deepest beliefs are now one… Advancing these
ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the
honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent
requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our
time.”
(USADI)
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The Los Angeles
Times
February 11, 2005
Iranian
Exiles Protest Tehran and Its Nuclear Agenda
BERLIN - More than 2,000 Iranian exiles from across Europe
rallied in Berlin on Thursday to protest against Tehran's
conservative Islamic government and criticize its nuclear
ambitions as a dangerous pursuit that could lead to U.S.
military intervention.
The demonstration quickly spun into a saga of legal maneuverings
and conspiracy theories. Before the rally was to begin, Berlin
authorities canceled it, saying it had been partly organized by
an Iranian group linked to terrorism. A court overturned the
ban, and protesters, many of whom had reportedly been detained
for hours at airports and train stations, streamed through the
rainy streets.
"The regime in Iran is terrified. The ruling clerics know these
are their last days, and they tried to stop this democratic
demonstration," said Shokrani Taheri, handing out fliers amid
police officers at the Brandenburg Gate, where the march began.
"Tehran has made deals with the governments of Europe. There's
business and oil, and the Europeans don't want to lose them."…
Worried that their voices may be drowned out by international
developments, Iranians in the diaspora are lobbying for the
overthrow of the Tehran government through sanctions and support
of internal opposition groups.
Some demonstrators complained that European negotiations with
Iran had done little to improve the country's human rights
record or derail its nuclear program. They said that although
they opposed a U.S. military strike, they were encouraged by the
tough language directed at Tehran by President Bush during his
State of the Union address last week and by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice this week, although Rice has said that an
attack on Iran is "not on the agenda" at this time.
"The European appeasement approach has been futile and
counterproductive. It gives Iran only carrots," said Mitra
Ghafranifar, who said she left Iran and settled in Germany 18
years ago, after her brothers were executed for sympathizing
with groups seeking to topple the regime. "But at this time, the
last thing Iranians need is an invasion by a foreign power. We
don't want the mullahs to have justifications for cracking down
on the people."
Kheiratie Ahad stood amid the crackle of loudspeakers as the
paint on placards ran in the drizzle. Like thousands of Iranians
from across Europe, he spent his morning in confusion, being
told the rally was on, then off, then on…
"We are against Iran's nuclear bomb project," said Ahad, who
moved from Iran to Germany in 1991. "We are against European
appeasement. We are against U.S. military intervention. The
change must come from within Iran itself. This is what we are
here to support."
Germany's Interior Ministry said the rally, organized by the
National Council of Resistance of Iran, would help support
another organization, the People's Mujahedin of Iran…
Western Europe, led by Germany, France and Britain, is
attempting to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment, and they
don't want their perceived endorsement of a rally by exiles to
undermine negotiations. Last week, the French government banned
a rally in Paris. The exiles then moved it to Berlin….
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Newsweek
February 28, 2005 issue
Tehran: Guess Who's Trying to Infiltrate
Iraq?
Fresh intel suggests that Tehran is trying to expand its
influence over whatever government emerges in post-election
Iraq. According to U.S. officials familiar with the latest
intelligence, the Iranian government has been secretly directing
its agents inside Iraq to plant themselves in influential
positions throughout the Iraqi government—into agencies that
handle economic affairs, like the ministries of Oil, Public
Works and Finance, as well as departments like the Interior
Ministry that handle national security.
The Iranians also are directing their agents to infiltrate Iraqi
security agencies on the "working level" by taking jobs in
regional or local government offices and particularly local
police forces. According to the most pessimistic U.S. analysts,
the ayatollahs' ultimate goal: "Taking over the government of
Iraq." A less pessimistic view is that the latest intel merely
shows an ongoing campaign of "classical espionage" by Tehran
against Iraq.
U.S. government sources say a significant number of intel
reports have recently documented the Iranian covert-action
campaign and that the reports include internal Iranian
government discussions about how Tehran's agents in Iraq are
being deployed.
Many of the Iranian agents in question, the intel reports say,
are members of the Badr Corps, a paramilitary affiliate of the
Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a
political party with longtime Iranian ties that is one of the
principal partners in the coalition of Shiite parties that won
the largest number of seats in the new Iraqi constitutional
assembly. U.S. analysts now believe the corps is riddled with
agents controlled by Iranian intelligence. U.S. officials note
that most of the parties and politicians who won biggest in last
month's Iraqi elections have historical ties to Tehran.
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Iran Focus
February 21, 2005
Riots rock three
Kurdish towns in Iran
Tehran, Feb. 21 – Heavy clashes between Iranian Kurds and
security agents erupted on Friday in three towns in western
Iran, leaving dozens injured and hundreds arrested.
Clashes broke out after State Security Forces agents used force
to disperse demonstrations taking place simultaneously in the
towns of Sardasht, Saqqez, and Baneh in protest against severe
fuel shortages in the area, eye-witnesses reported.
The demonstrations quickly turned violent as protestors fought
back and shouted slogans against Iran's ruling clerics.
In Sardasht, residents came to the aid of protestors during
clashes as the SSF attempted to arrest anyone in the vicinity of
the demonstration. At least 200 people, mostly youths, were
arrested.
In Saqqez, residents reportedly forced SSF agents to flee the
scene after serious scuffles.
In Baneh, hundreds of protesting youths were reportedly detained
by security forces and taken for questioning. Iranian Kurds have
been at loggerheads with the Islamic fundamentalist regime that
has been in power for 26 years.
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