Rooyesh

The Open Society Institute is dismayed by the charges announced today in Iran against Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, an internationally respected scholar who is an American citizen.These charges are completely without merit. Dr. Tajbakhsh’s work for the Open Society Institute (OSI) has focused on public health, humanitarian relief, culture, and local government.

Where possible, OSI has sought to foster improved understanding between Iran and other countries. In the aftermath of the earthquake in Bam, the Iranian authorities requested assistance from OSI in aiding victims and rebuilding communities in that devastated city. Iranian officials also sought OSI’s expertise in the area of public health. Dr. Tajbakhsh worked on these humanitarian efforts.None of OSI’s Iran activities have been funded or initiated by the U.S. government. Before his arrest in Tehran on May 11, Dr. Tajbakhsh also worked for a European urban planning group, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, and had been a consultant for the World Bank. In addition, Dr. Tajbakhsh has served as an expert for several Iranian government organizations, including the Municipalities Organization, the Social Security Organization, and the Ministry of the Interior. He has also taught urban sociology at Allameh University in Tehran. A dual Iranian-American national, Dr. Tajbakhsh is a distinguished expert on urban planning who has chosen to devote his life to public service. He is being held in the notorious Evin prison without access to a lawyer. We urge the Iranian authorities to release Dr. Tajbakhsh immediately.

PARANOID that a network of U.S. scholars and thinkers is fomenting a velvet revolution, Iran charged three U.S.-Iranian citizens with espionage this week. If convicted, they face execution. The accused are Haleh Esfandiari, the 67-year-old director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, a respected social scientist at the New School in New York who has consulted for George Soros’s Open Society Institute and the World Bank; and Radio Farda journalist Parnaz Azima, 59.

The government and various state news agencies have accused these Iranian Americans and their organizations of endangering state security on the basis of their supposedly treacherous attempts to foster dialogue and exchange. The charges are ludicrous. Ms. Esfandiari, who has invited scholars and statesmen from Iran to U.S. conferences and events, has been criticized by some in the Iranian American community as being too soft on the current regime. And not only has Mr. Tajbakhsh consulted directly for the Iranian government, but the supposedly “Zionist” and “soft overthrow”-obsessed organization he works for, the Open Society Institute, has run all its humanitarian and health outreach programs in Iran with the full cooperation of the Iranian government, sometimes even at the government’s initiative. Iran’s government approached the institute in 2003, for example, to provide relief after the Bam earthquake. The idea that any of these people were in Iran to concoct a U.S.-funded insurgent network is especially absurd, given that all three were there on private visits, with both Ms. Esfandiari and Ms. Azima visiting their ailing mothers. The list of foreign hostages doesn’t stop there. U.S.-Iranian businessman Ali Shakeri, who is on the board of the University of California at Irvine’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, was arrested on May 8 on his way back to the United States (also after visiting his ill mother, who died during his stay). A fifth U.S.-Iranian citizen is also imprisoned, although his name has not been released. Ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran in March and may be imprisoned, though Iran has denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. And an Iranian French national, journalism student Mehrnoushe Solouki, has been forbidden to leave the country, according to Reporters Without Borders. These individuals are pawns. Those in Iran who care about the world’s respect should press for their release.

The Financial Times reports president George W. Bush on Friday demanded that Iran release “immediately and unconditionally” four US citizens who have been accused of anti-state activities. Mr Bush said the four, who hold dual nationality, were in Iran to visit their parents or conduct humanitarian work and posed no threat. He named Haleh Esfandiari, an academic; Parnaz Azima, a reporter; Kian Tajbakhsh, a social scientist; and Ali Shakeri, a member of a US non-governmental organisation.

“I strongly condemn their detention at the hands of Iranian authorities. They should be freed immediately and unconditionally,” Mr Bush said in a statement. He also demanded information about a former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, who has been missing since visiting Iran on March 8. Although the president’s intervention raises the issue of the detainees to a new level, the US has sought to keep the dispute separate from renewed diplomacy between the US and Iran on the question of Iraq’s security situation. The two countries opened talks in Baghdad on Monday for the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, Stephen Hadley, national security advisor, on Friday warned that “capturing innocent Americans” was “not helpful” in resolving the twin outstanding issues of Iran’s alleged destabilisation of Iraq, and its alleged nuclear weapons programme. For its part, Iran demands the release of five of its officials held by US forces in Iraq since January. But it did not raise that issue in the Baghdad talks either. US analysts say Iran’s action against the four dual nationals appears aimed at countering what it sees as US efforts to undermine the regime through its secret funding of Iranian civil society activists. None of the four arrested have been funded by the State Department’s democracy fund. Nonetheless, Iran’s ministry of intelligence has accused Ms Esfandiari, head of the Middle East programme at Washington’s Woodrow Wilson center, and Mr Tajbakhsh, a consultant for the Open Society Institute founded by George Soros, of working together to foment a “soft revolution”. Both institutions have strongly denied the allegations, and say their work was transparent and well known to the Iranian authorities. It is not clear exactly what formal charges have been made against the four individuals. Iranian officials and official media reports have variously spoken of espionage and acting against national security, and in the case of Ms Azima, who is out of prison on bail, of making “propaganda against Iran” for US-funded Radio Farda. Mr Shakeri’s arrest has not been confirmed by the Iranian authorities. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry has denied all knowledge of Mr Levinson.

A grandmother of two, Parnaz Azima seems an unlikely person to be accused of undermining Iran’s Islamic republic. But she is one of four Iranian-Americans facing charges in Tehran in what the US State Department on Thursday called a ”disturbing pattern” of harassment of dual citizens. Ms Azima was as surprised as anyone this week when Iran’s judiciary spokesman said she had been charged with “acting against national security”.

Two weeks earlier an interrogator had told the broadcaster she was charged with the less serious offence of earning “illegitimate” money and making “propaganda” against Iran in her work for the US-funded Radio Farda. But now it seemed Ms Azima, who is not in prison but cannot leave Iran, was being lumped together with other Iranian-Americans who, unlike her, were accused of spying. “I simply don’t know what’s going on,” she told the Financial Times. “Legally speaking, there are differences between these allegations.” A US campaign to free the four – including Ali Shakeri, a businessman whose detention was confirmed yesterday by the State Department – by politicians and officials is gathering steam, but the cases are far from straightforward. Abdol-Fattah Soltani, a lawyer for Haleh Esfandiari, held in prison since May 8, said he was unsure his client, a 63-year-old academic, had been charged with spying, despite Tuesday’s statement by the judicial spokesman that she was one of two people accused of “acting against national security” and carrying out “espionage for aliens”. “We don’t have a crime called ‘acting against national security’ and it’s not even clear what espionage means,” Mr Soltani, who is denied access to his client, told the FT. “Any prisoner must by law be told within 24 hours of arrest what charges he is facing.” Ms Azima said her four-hour interrogation on May 15 ended with her accepting to pay bail of $545,500 (€406,000, £276,000) which was guaranteed with the deeds of her mother’s Tehran apartment. The interrogator, Majid Hemmati-Rasekh, represented the security section of the Revolutionary Justice Department, the part of the judiciary that deals with national security and espionage charges. Ms Azima has been unable to leave Iran since January 25 when her Iranian passport was confiscated by airport officials. “There was only one interrogator, who was very polite,” Ms Azima said. “He asked for ‘cooperation’, like giving them information if I find out for instance when the US plans to make explosions in some ethnic areas in Iran. I told him I would call the police, for humanitarian reasons, if I found out about any explosions anywhere.” The question derived from Iran’s concern over alleged US and British support for militants in border provinces of Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Sistan-Baluchestan, home respectively to Kurd, Arab and Baluchi minorities. Ms Azima said she had not been asked about her links with the other Iranian-Americans. Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi, Ms Azima’s lawyer, said the interrogator considered her work for Radio Farda a criminal act and said that any earnings should be paid to the Iranian government. The Persian-language station, was established in 1998 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the US Congress and committed to “democratic values and civil societies for countries that are struggling to overcome autocratic institutions”. It broadcasts, from Prague, a diet of western and Iranian pop music, interlaced with news. But while some drivers like to tune in its impact has not lived up to its original billing. The case against Ms Azima appears less serious than those against Ms Esfandiari, who heads the Middle East programme of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson center, and Kian Tajbakhsh, 45, an associate of the New York-based Open Society Institute arrested on May 11 and who, according to the judiciary spokesman, faces the same charges as Ms Esfandiari. Iran has not yet confirmed the arrest of Mr Shakeri, 59, a leading member of the Centre for Citizen Peacebuilding, a US non-governmental organisation. But Washington yesterday voiced its concern over his detention. His case is perhaps the most serious of the four. Kayhan, a leading conservative newspaper has called him a “CIA agent” and alleged that he worked for Savak, the intelligence service of the Shah, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The Financial Times

Associated Press reports the U.S. is not preparing for war against Iran and Vice President Dick Cheney supports that policy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says, taking a swipe at a U.N. official who says he’s worried about “crazies” who want to start bombing. “The president of the United States has made very clear what our policy is. That policy is supported by all the members of his Cabinet and by the vice president of the United States,” Rice said Friday.

“The president has made clear that we are on a diplomatic course.” Rice, in Spain at the close of a European visit, was asked about the comments of the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. Mohamed ElBaradei was quoted by the BBC as warning against the views of “new crazies who say ‘let’s go and bomb Iran.’” Cheney is frequently the administration’s most hawkish voice on Iran, but Rice said she did not know to whom ElBaradei referred. The United States does not rule out military action but says there is no plan or intention to attack Tehran. Cheney has not publicly advocated an assault on Iran, but he used the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf last month to warn Tehran that Washington would prevent the Islamic republic from dominating the Middle East. Rice was clearly annoyed by ElBaradei’s remarks, which were part of an interview the International Atomic Energy Agency head gave for a documentary. The remarks were posted Friday on the BBC Web site. Rice said the United States is using diplomacy to avoid “getting to a place where we have an unpalatable choice.” She described that as a choice “between having to do something on the military side or allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon. That’s a choice that people talk about.” Rice, who has tangled with ElBaradei before, suggested he is giving Iran mixed signals. “We have a diplomatic choice, but it’s only going to succeed if we are absolutely clear with the Iranians — not muddying the message in any way,” she said. Iran is getting the right message from the U.N. Security Council, which has ordered two rounds of sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program, and from the world at large, Rice said. “I expect them to hear it loud and clear from the IAEA, and from its director,” she said. Separately, in what could be an attempt to delay the threat of new U.N. sanctions, Iran has pledged to cooperate with the nuclear monitoring agency probing its atomic program, according to an official speaking to The Associated Press.. That would end years of stonewalling by Iran and help the IAEA establish whether Tehran’s past nuclear efforts were exclusively peaceful in nature. U.N. and other officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue, said Friday a decision by Iran to help clear up past activities would represent a major concession. Rice’s visit to Madrid was not connected to nuclear talks there Thursday between negotiators for Iran and the European Union. The talks ended without announcement of any breakthrough. Rice is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Spain since a formerly close alliance turned frosty following the election of a Socialist government three years ago. After hard feelings in Washington over Spain’s quick pullout from Iraq and a dispute last year over Spanish plans to sell military equipment to Washington antagonist Huge Chavez of Venezuela, a fresh disagreement has threatened to wash away any growing good will. At issue is Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos’ decision to snub Cuban dissidents on a visit to Havana in April. Moratinos has defended the move, saying engagement with Cuba is the best policy.. When Moratinos predicted that in time Rice would see the value of his approach, Rice, listening to his remarks by translation on a headset, looked amused and unconvinced. As Moratinos continued to speak, she looked at the crowd of reporters and silently mouthed what appeared to be the phrase, “Don’t hold your breath.”

Even as they struggle to find common ground on Iraq, are America and Iran locked in the escalating tensions of a new Cold War? Many analysts saw their meeting in Baghdad on 28 May as a sign of a thaw. The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, described his four hours of talks with his Iranian counterpart as “positive”. But look at the bigger picture and there are serious and growing tensions on several fronts.

Essentially, the Americans accuse Iran of trying to destabilise their military presence in Iraq - and Iranian officials accuse the Bush administration of trying to foment a “velvet revolution” in Iran. It is more than a war of words. It is an arcane game of overt and covert activity, complex regional manoeuvring and trade-offs - and the occasional hint of gunboat diplomacy. This week the head of Iranian counter-espionage described his officials’ efforts to thwart spying networks they’d uncovered in seven of Iran’s provinces. The official, who by tradition is not named by the Iranian media, linked these networks to countries with troops in Iraq - in other words, the United States and Britain. He implied they were playing on ethnic divisions in Iran, especially in sensitive border areas. Such allegations are, by definition, hard to prove or disprove. But what’s clear is that American pressure on Iran is not confined to UN sanctions designed to dissuade it from the pursuit of nuclear weapons. Other US pressures include: the use of “soft power” (broadcasting, cultural exchange, the promotion of democracy and human rights) to try to influence Iranian public opinion efforts to coax somewhat ambivalent Arab states to join an anti-Iranian regional alliance the Seizure of Iranian officials who are, in American eyes, stirring up trouble in Iraq according to report, the US has been conducting covert operations inside Iran ABC News has reported that President Bush has authorised the CIA to carry out a series of covert measures to destabilise Iran. These range from propaganda to the manipulation of Iranian currency and banking transactions. Iran is resorting to various means of counter-pressure, including: the arrest of Iranian-Americans it accuses of spying strengthening ties with the Arab world by, for example, offering to restore diplomatic relations with Egypt maintaining a drum-beat of rhetoric against the American presence in Iraq and the Gulf, plus - and this may be Tehran’s strongest card - maintaining an intricate network of contacts in Iraq which could potentially be used to target US troops or US interests So how can the apparent contradiction, between the “positive” diplomatic exchanges in Baghdad and the Cold War climate of bitterness overshadowing US-Iranian relations, be explained? Part of the explanation may be that, in Washington as in Tehran, there are different centres of power pursuing their own hawkish or dovish agendas. The US administration is clearly looking for a new mix of policies. It is willing to negotiate, but only from a position of strength. Conscious of its difficulties in Iraq, it recoils from the idea of approaching Iran as a supplicant. The Americans are also aware that, in the Iranian case, their military options are unattractive. The alternative, therefore, is a mix of critical engagement and robust containment. It worked in the Cold War. Will it work with Iran?

BBC News