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Commentary
by U.S. Alliance for Democratic Iran
Rule of
Law and Legacy of Appeasement
In another blow to the policy of appeasement
toward the terror-sponsoring regime of
ayatollahs, the Proscribed Organisations Appeals
Commission (POAC) today upheld its November 30
ruling which ordered the removal of Iran’s main
opposition group, the People's Mojahedin from
the list of terror organizations. POAC struck
down the appeal by the United Kingdom’s
government which is unwisely trying to preserve
a despicable legacy of former British Foreign
Minister Jack Straw.
POAC ruling follows a similar judgment last year
by the European Union’s second highest court
which overturned the European Union decision to
put the PMOI on the EU’s terror blacklist. The
ruling annulled the EU’s decision to freeze
European assets of the group.
In October 1997, U.S. Department of State
included the PMOI in the list of Foreign
Terrorist Organizations (FTO) as part of a
policy of rapprochement with the Iranian regime
and “as a good-will gesture”; a move which
Khatami's government "considered it a pretty big
deal." Senior diplomats in the Clinton
administration have acknowledged that the PMOI
“figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a
bridge-building effort with Tehran.”
The UK ruling comes as the hurried and hasty
jubilance of Tehran appeasers in Washington
following last week’s release of the National
Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear
program is dying down and a more sober
assessment of the NIE and its policy
implications is gradually emerging.
Now that the pre-NIE hype over immanent military
attack on Iran’s nuclear sites has evaporated
and it is now universally agreed that this
option is not plausible anymore – not that it
ever really was – and given the utter bankruptcy
of let’s-talk-to-ayatollahs-to-fix-every thing,
the time has come for bold, realistic, and out
of the box (of military option vs. appeasement)
thinking and policy making.
The fact that the irreformable theocratic nature
of Iran’s ruling regime is the root of the
Tehran’s conduct should be a starting point for
any new thinking. Desire of Iranian people for
democratic change – again on display this week
by thousands of students chanting “death to
dictator’, and “down with the corrupt and
lawless government” – must be heeded and
supported.
It is in this context that removing all
roadblocks and restrictions from Iran’s
democratic opposition forces becomes a
prerequisite for realization of democratic
change in Iran. Better programming at
Voice of America and Radio Farda is all good but
it is not democracy movement's main handicap.
Nor is lack of cell phones or laptops. But the
putting the brakes on the the most potent and
effective opposition movement, the PMOI, by way
of blacklisting them, is. And in light of
ample legal, political and policy grounds for
reversing the blacklisting of the PMOI, the
administration should reassess its evaluation of
the group and lift the terror designation. Let
the ball for democratic change in Iran rolling.
(USADI)
USADI
Commentary reflects the viewpoints of the US Alliance
for Democratic Iran in respect to issues and events
which directly or indirectly impact the US policy toward
Iran |