- 15 October 2009
-
- 2 Comments
-
-
-
- Diplomacy, Events in Iran, Human Rights in Iran, Iran Election 2009
Friendly advice on how to engage Iran
15 October 2009 Posted By Patrick Disney
From Nobel Peace laureate to Nobel Peace laureate.
Shirin Ebadi talked to the Washington Post, offering some advice to President Obama. Although it’s not a mistake to be engaging with the government, she said, “paying so much more attention to Iran’s nuclear ambitions than to its trampling of democracy and freedom is a mistake both tactical and moral.”
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “is at the lowest level of popularity one can imagine,” Ms. Ebadi said. “If the West focuses exclusively on the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad can tell his people that the West is against Iran’s national interest and rally people to his cause. But if the West presses also on its human rights record, he will find himself in a position where his popular base is getting weaker and weaker by the day.”
To anyone familiar with internal Iranian politics, this should sound very familiar. For years, NIAC has told policymakers that the nuclear issue is the strongest card in Ahmadinejad’s hand, precisely because he can paint it as a black and white issue in which the world is trying to deprive Iran of its rights.
Human rights, on the other hand, has long been the government’s weakest pressure point. Now that Ahmadinejad faces an unprecedented legitimacy crisis, that vulnerability grows larger every single day.
2 Responses to “Friendly advice on how to engage Iran”
I disagree, Patrick. While important, in itself, the human rights issue for the US is quite muddied. What about Guantanimo? Bagram? Abu Ghraib? What about civilian victims of American aerial bombardment? How about US support for crimes committed by the Zionists? Waterboarding?
Then there’s the case of American Middle East allies like Egypt. How can the US punish Iran and reward Egypt? It doesn’t work, does it.
While it’s definitely correct to be concerned about human rights in all countries, international relations is a far more complicated game than simple matters of ethics and morality. I mean, for gosh sake, look at what Israel gets away with. And they’re considered America’s closest ally in the world!
Every Iranian-American should be concerned primarily with one thing: improved US-Iran relations. That, by itself, would generate many positive improvements not only for Iran, but also the US.
Shirin Ebadi, I rest my case.
@ Pirouz:
[…]Every Iranian-American should be concerned primarily with one thing: improved US-Iran relations.[…]
Are you for serious? Don’t you care one bit about the brutal repression that has taken place in Iran for the past few months?
Human rights may not be a suitable item for negotiation between states (what’s the realist view on that, Mr. Parsi?) but to say that Iranian-Americans should ignore human rights and only focus on improved US-Iranian relations is, well, impossible for anyone with an ounce of compassion and a love for his people.