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POLITICS-IRAN: Unease Grows over a U.S. Neighbourhood
By Ramim Mostaghim
TEHERAN, Apr 28 (IPS) - In a political world divided between conservatives
and reformists, many leaders in Iran seem to be getting uneasy over an
administration being run by the U.S. in neighbouring Iraq.
"For the time being America is Iran's next door neighbour, and will be
there for two years," columnist Ali Salehabadi wrote in the reformist daily
Habastegi. "This phenomenon is very threatening and complicated. We should
therefore adopt a strategy with America cautiously, and based on a clear
vision. Whether we cooperate with America or not, we need a correct
response."
Few agree in Teheran what that correct response should be. Divisions over
the U.S. are widening by the day. Publications like Yaletharat and Dokoheh
which are the mouthpieces of radical militias want to provoke confrontation
with U.S. forces. They focus on the human toll of the Iraq war, and project
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban as a form of reistance against invasion.
Publications like Resalat and Kayhan on the other hand are calling for a
more pragmatic approach, and for the two camps to come to some form of
consensus.
"Ballot boxes are necessary to give legitimacy to a system, but they are
not sufficient," columnist Naser Emani writes in the conservative Resalat.
"To close the gap between the ruled and the rulers, both camps must find
methods to unify values and beliefs shared by people and the government."
Both camps are becoming "prisoners of their own rhetoric, and neither
dares to reinvent itself like the Kurdish leadership in Iraq and become a
friend of America," says dissident journalist Kaveh Amiri.
Amiri, who was imprisoned for running an independent news website says
the Iranian government has to find legitimacy first before dealing with the
U.S. "No detenete or negotiations with America are possible without mutual
trust between the ruled and the rulers," he says. "The rulers must first
demonstrate that they are the true representatives of their people and only
then speak for them."
An influential leader who has in the past supported an improvement of
relations with the U.S. says the time is not right for negotiations.
"President Bush is not listening to the presidents of Russia and France, and
to the German Chancellor, why would he listen to President Mohammed
Khattami," Saeed Laylaz from the pro-Khattami daily Hamshahri told IPS.
Laylaz, who had reported a consensus between conservative and reformist
groups on improving relations with the U.S. earlier, now sees it falling
apart. "Over the past four years developments in the domestic, regional and
international arenas have made that dialogue irrelevant, at least for the
time being," he says.
September 11 has made the U.S. an aggressive force in the region and Iran
is now flanked by two countries that are U.S. protectorates - Iraq and
Afghanistan - he says. "These regimes have reduced the bargaining power of
Iran with the U.S. If we sit with U.S. officials at a negotiating table now,
we will have to listen to what they say, and so that kind of move is
untimely."
The reformists, who had earlier won landslide victories in presidential
and parliamentary elections, failed to translate those victories into closer
ties with the U.S. "We have missed many opportunities to improve our
relations with the U.S. administration," says Elaheh Koulaee, campaigner for
women's rights, and champion of détente with the U.S. in the parliamentary
foreign relations commission.
The reformists, who have lost ground to their conservative rivals in
elections to the Islamic rural and urban councils, have now switched to new
tactics in encouraging students to speak up. They have tabled a proposal in
parliament for setting up student unions and have asked for steps to
encourage them to become politically active.
The bill would have to be approved by the majority and also endorsed by a
12-member panel of jurists of the Islamic constitution.
"The reformists are only trying to manipulate students to secure support
for their vague agendas," says Amiri. "The trouble is that reformists
themselves lack a vision about reforms." (END/2003)
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