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By Cindy Saine,
VOA, Washington
Several experts on Iran spoke at a roundtable held
by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday on the ongoing political
crisis in that country and options for U.S foreign policy. They agreed that
despite the Iranian government's crackdown on peaceful demonstrations, the
opposition movement in Iran is far from over.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Democrat John Kerry said the events
in Iran since the country's disputed June 12 election have prompted U.S. and
international outrage over the Iranian government's crackdown and sympathy for
opposition demonstrators who are demanding a full investigation of the vote.
Kerry said President Barack Obama has delivered a well-calibrated official U.S.
response.
"But if we truly hope to empower moderates rather than merely score rhetorical
points, we have to recognize how our words are heard half a world away," said
Senator Kerry. "America has a long and troubled history with Iran."
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Millions have participated in peaceful rallies in Tehran
and other cities of Iran. However, on June 19, the Supreme Leader
Khamenei ordered crackdown on further protests. Since then the
protesters have faced harsh measures by the security forces. |
Several leading Republican and some Democratic lawmakers have called on
President Obama to react more forcefully to Tehran's violent crackdown. The
president has said he does not want to give Tehran a pretext to say that the
United States is meddling in Iran's internal affairs, and that, as president,
his words have consequences.
Analyst Karim Sadjadpour at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
agreed with Senator Kerry that Mr. Obama has been right to strike a cautious
tone, calling the president's position "mature and well-intentioned". He said
that opposition leaders in Iran he has spoken to have not asked that the United
States take a tougher stance.
"And I tell people I defer to the leaders of Iran's opposition movement
themselves," said Karim Sadjadpour. "And if they continue to ask the United
States to tread carefully and refrain from a more direct role, they know their
situation much better than we do."
Sadjadpour called on non-Western countries, such as Japan and South Africa, to
strongly condemn Tehran's repressive practices and show their solidarity with
the protesters.
Michael Singh is an analyst at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and
the former senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security
Council under President George W. Bush. Singh said he believes that the
prospects for engagement with the Tehran government have dimmed and that the
United States needs to give Iranian dissidents all of the support it can.
"I do think that if Iran sees that there is no cost to this when there has been
such international outcry that that will really hamstring us on the nuclear
issue," said Michael Singh. "And we do sort of eventually get back to that,
which ultimately we will have to, we have no choice."
The experts agreed that for Iran's government, the crisis has just begun.
Again, analyst Karim Sadjadpour:
"The opposition is entering a new phase," he said. "Instead of flexing their
muscles on the streets and trying to bring together large crowds, I think they
recognize that the next step for them is to try to target the major arteries of
this Iranian economy. And they have called for strikes amongst the merchant
classes, the bazaar, among key industries like the petroleum industry, labor
groups."
Sadjadpour and other experts advised members of the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee to hold off on passing resolutions calling for sanctions
against Tehran, saying that it is better to wait and let events unfold on the
streets of Iran.
... Payvand News - 06/25/09 ... --
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