Dear Mr. President
How
should the U.S. respond to demonstrations in Tehran?
June 20, 2003
The Iranian
Anti-government
protests have continued for
the ninth consecutive night across Iran amid a heated debate in
Washington
on its policy toward Tehran. According to the Washington Post and
Financial
Times, the Bush administration is deeply divided between those
who support "regime change" and those who oppose active
intervention and advocate a
diplomatic approach toward Tehran.
To demonstrate the point, Senator
Sam
Brownback signaled Wednesday that he had high-level support in
the Pentagon
to support possible covert operations to destabilize the Iranian
government. The same day, Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed support
for the
student demonstrations, but held open the possibility of restarting
talks
with Iranian officials. Powell also denied the U.S. had incited
the
anti-government demonstrations as alleged by Tehran.
As the U.S. focuses its attention on Iran, Europe and the United
Nations
have also begun reevaluating their own policies on Iran. France
this week
enforced a crackdown on the Iranian opposition group, the Mujaheddin-e
Khalq, while the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report
stating
that Iran had not fulfilled its nuclear safeguard obligations.
The wording
of the IAEA's statement was milder than the Bush administration
had hoped.
The U.S. had called for strong international condemnation of
Iran's
alleged
violations but faced resistance by some countries. On Wednesday,
President
Bush warned Tehran that world leaders would not tolerate Iran's
development
of a nuclear weapon. He also urged Iranian officials to treat student
protestors, who he described as "brave souls", with
utmost respect.
In its
statement, the IAEA called on Iran to allow stricter inspections
of its
nuclear facilities through the adoption of an additional protocol,
something
Iran immediately rejected.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami
Thursday defended the rights of students to protest, but condemned
violence.
He vowed
zero tolerance toward vigilantes and pressure groups that have
attacked the
protesters in recent days. Khatami also criticized the United
States and the
Western media for exaggerating recent unrest in the country.
With all eyes on Iran, the National Iranian American Council
(NIAC) believes
it is highly critical that Iranian-Americans express their viewpoints
to
U.S. representatives and lawmakers. In the past, no objective measurement
of
Iranian-American public opinion on U.S.-Iran relations existed.
In
such an environment, many groups were able to claim that they
were representative
of
Iranian-Americans. It is the mission of NIAC to enable Iranian-Americans
to
have their individual voices - whatever they choose it to
be - heard in
Washington.
To ensure that our community is accurately represented
in the
foreign policy community, it is essential that as many Iranian-Americans
as
possible communicate their views with their lawmakers. Write
your letter
today, and encourage all Iranian-Americans to do the same! NIAC offers you the opportunity to express YOUR views about what
America's
policy should be to the President, to the Vice President, to your
lawmakers
and to Secretaries Powell and Rumsfeld.
NIAC has prepared three letters taking three different positions.
Choose the
one that you agree with the most OR draft your own letter:
Letter One
Support the Iranian students and regime change in
Iran
The
first letter argues that the President should support the students in
Iran by
increasing the pressure on Iran and by declaring the US's support
for regime
change in Iran. The rational behind this position is that the Islamic
government is unreformable and incapable of being democratized.
Freedom can
only come to Iran through the dismantling of the mullah's
regime, and
America's help is needed, advocates of this position argue.
Send this letter
to President Bush and your.
Letter Two
Support the Iranian students from a distance
The
second letter urges the President to support the students
from a distance and to
allow the Iranians to maintain their independence in their struggle
for
democracy. The rational for this letter is that US support for
the student
movement can be counterproductive and end up undermining the domestic
movement for democracy. The Iranian democracy must be independent
and
homegrown, it argues. The letter urges the President to express
moral
support for the aspirations of the people, but not for any political
faction
or any specific form of government. Send
this letter to President
Bush and
your lawmakers.
Letter Three
Support the Iranian students to
decide their own future
The
third letter urges the President not to interfere in internal
Iranian affairs,
period. This letter argues that any direct American involvement
in Iranian
affairs will discredit the domestic democracy movement and evaporate
the
pro-American sentiments of the Iranian people. The Iranian democracy
movement should be supported by America's absence. Send
this letter to
President Bush and your lawmakers.
Tell
all your friends and family to send a letter as well!
To learn more
about the work of NIAC, please visit www.niacouncil.org.
Author
Dokhi Fassihian (M.A. in international relations from Johns
Hopkins University, Maryland) is a political analyst in Washington
DC and member of NIAC. This article first appeared on NIAC's
website.
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