DATE=5/8/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=POST-ELECTION IRAN
NUMBER=5-56275
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Reformers have won two-thirds of sixty-six
parliamentary seats in Iran's runoff elections. That
gives them more than two hundred seats out of two
hundred ninety, the first time conservative clerics
have not dominated the parliament since the 1979
revolution. At a recent Washington conference,
participants discussed evolving Iran and the U-S
response to it. V-O-A's Ed Warner reports.
TEXT: Iran has been changing, says Graham Fuller of
the research organization RAND, but U-S policy has not
been changing along with it.
At a conference held by the Middle East Policy Council
on Capitol Hill, Mr. Fuller said the United States has
considered Iran a rogue state for too long. That is an
arbitrary and arrogant label, he added, that simply
stifles policy.
It is essential, he said, to start dealing with Iran:
/// FULLER ACT ///
Through our actions, we have suspended the
geopolitics of the Persian Gulf, and that makes
life very complicated for us and for everyone
else. Our boycott of Iran affects huge issues of
long term importance: pipelines which are not
here for four or five years but for 40 or 50
years and affect the region. Iran could assist
in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, if we had worked
with Iran in this area. But for a long time, we
were the threat to Iran much more than Saddam
Hussein was.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Fuller noted that Iran has moved closer to Russia
and China because it has been shunned by the United
States. He believes Iran could offer some help in
bringing stability to Afghanistan and the Caucasus.
Above all, it has had years of experience as an
Islamic republic under clerical rule. It can draw
lessons useful for the rest of the Muslim world.
Ted Carpenter, director of defense and foreign policy
studies at the private Cato Institute, cited one
possible lesson:
/// CARPENTER ACT ///
We may see the passing of a fairly pervasive
myth, and that is that the values of Islam and
democracy are antithetical. What is going on in
Iran today and at the other end of the Islamic
world in Indonesia thus becomes very, very
interesting. Are we going to see the emergence
of home-grown versions of democracy compatible
with the basic principles of Islam?
/// END ACT ///
But is democracy assured in Iran? Assad Homayoun, an
Iranian opposition leader in the United States, has
his doubts. He notes the reaction of the hard-liners
to the reformers' success in the first round of
elections:
/// HOMAYOUN ACT ///
They shut down all pro-democracy papers - daily,
weekly and monthly. And they incarcerated a
number of students, journalists and even two
prominent pro-democracy women. Presently, Iran
is entering a crisis of confrontation between
the clerics and the people of Iran, maybe
resorting to violence. The situation in Iran is
very tense.
/// END ACT ///
Entrenched in the judiciary and the security forces,
the conservative clerics limit the power of reformist
President Mohammed Khatami.
Mr. Homayoun says their intransigence could lead to a
popular uprising. He believes there is even a faction
of the Revolutionary Guards ready to break ranks with
the hardliners. In his opinion, the Iranian people
have had their fill of clerical rule.
Jerome Segal, President of the Jewish Peace Lobby,
says a revitalized and more democratic Iran could play
a major role as a Middle East peacemaker.
Mr. Segal believes Jerusalem must be the shared
capital of Israelis and Palestinians. To overcome
Israeli resistance, Iran could make a dramatic offer
to end all opposition to the Jewish state:
/// SEGAL ACT ///
To me, that actually means some kind of
reconciliation between Judaism and Islam with
respect to Jerusalem. The question is whether or
not Iran, which would be the uniquely positioned
country, could constructively be brought into
play in terms of bringing that long-term
reconciliation for a true deal on Jerusalem.
/// END ACT ///
But Mr. Segal notes that any such lofty action depends
on continuing reform in Iran. (Signed)
NEB/ew/gm
08-May-2000 18:05 PM EDT (08-May-2000 2205 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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