Foreign Policy Blogs

News Update

Since Iran is such a vibrant country and is constantly in the news, there are plenty of news and analyses that I read while researching my blog but am unable to write about.  So here is my first installment of stories about Iran that “slip through the cracks” (yes- I am quoting Lewis Black from the Daily Show).

Swine Flu and Iran

According to the Fars News Agency, Swine flu has now killed 4 people in Iran while 391 cases of infection with the virus have been recorded in the country.  General Director of the Iranian Health Ministry’s Public Relations Department Abbas Zarenejad noted that 50 percent of the patients are the pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia and the rest have returned form trips to other countries, including Thailand and American and European countries, and 26% of the patients are those who had close contacts with the mentioned group returning from other countries.  In order to slow the spread of swine flu, Iran has ceased its flights to Saudi Arabia since August 11.

Ahmadinejad’s interview on NBC

NBC’s Ann Curry interview with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was filled with obfuscatory answers. Though his most obtuse answers came when asked about the violently contested election that returned him to office:

Curry: Inside and outside of Iran, people are questioning the legitimacy of your presidency.  The Speaker of the Parliament, [Ali] Larijani, himself has said that many in Iran don’t believe the election was fair. So, it is important to ask you, Mr. President, it’s important to ask you this question.  Did you steal this election?

Ahmadinejad: In Iran – in Iran, expressing ones point of view is fully permissible. It’s free.  Any person can express his or her point of view. And have their own opinions. The- the – if you will, the structures relating to elections in Iran are the strongest such foundations.  And the law prevails. There are – the legal frameworks inside Iran are very clear. And if a person has an opinion to express within the confines of the law they are free to express such opinions.  I don’t see any problems.

Curry: Would you like to answer that question more directly, given that it is a question that people around the world have asked?  Would you like to address the question, “Did you steal this election, sir?”

Ahmadinejad: I don’t know what you mean by that.

Curry: Did you create conditions so that you would win no matter the vote?

Ahmadinejad: It’s very clear.  Whoever becomes a candidate will start a campaign and will do his outmost to win.  One candidate wins and another person loses out. Let me ask you. Mr. Obama, did he steal the elections?  Well, in any election, one party wins.  The candidate who has lost, can he say that the election was stolen?  So, what are elections for?  I ask you.

Elections are organized so that the people decide.  Elections are organized so that people, different parties, do not think that their point of view is the only prevailing one.  It’s very clear.  It’s very well known.  That different people, different parties will have different points of view.  And the people decide.  I think we should be courageous enough to accept the vote of the people.  It’s more courageous than participating in the vote itself.

Curry: What gives –

Ahmadinejad: For 30 years, Iran’s government has been legitimate.  And legal.  Even in the time wherein my competitors won the elections.

Curry: What gives you confidence that you actually won the reelection?

Ahmadinejad: The law. And legal organizations. And the vote of the people.

Roger Cohen’s Op-ed

I personally am a fan of Roger Cohen’s analyses and his recent Op-ed in the New York Times on Iran proves to be no exception.  In How to Talk with Iran, Cohen reminds readers  that “Like many much-conquered countries, not least Italy, Iran loves artifice, the dressing-up of truth in elaborate layers. It will always favor ambiguity over clarity. This is a nation whose conventions include the charming ceremonial insincerity known as “taarof” (hypocrisy dressed up as flattery), and one that is no stranger to “tagieh,” which amounts to the sacrifice of truth to higher religious imperative.”  Maybe it is also something I need to remember when I listen to Ahmadinejad’s interviews.  Though the vagueness in his answers have nothing to do with “taarof” or “tagieh.”

Cohen also opines that Iran’s past injustices need to be understood in order to better address current stalemate on the Iranian nuclear program:

Iran’s deep sense of past injustice is evident in repeated use of words like “equitable.” It’s worth recalling that the stop-go Iranian nuclear program began in the 1980s, when Iran was being gassed by Iraq, whose chemical arsenal owed much to Europe and the United States. Such truths are no less true for being unpalatable.

The article provides a pragmatic approach on Iran, something that is often missing in most Op-eds written about Iran.

Iran upset with India

Relations between India and Iran have tensed up as Iran issued an ultimatum to India to join the multi-billion-dollar pipeline project designed to bring Iran’s gas to India via Pakistan or else it will be replaced by China.  As the Fars News Agency reported, on March 20, the Pakistani government approved Iran’s proposed pricing formula for gas supplies to the South Asian nation and the two sides eventually signed a bilateral agreement.  India, however, has continued to evade meetings about the pipeline.

 

Author

Sahar Zubairy

Sahar Zubairy recently graduated from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas- Austin with Masters in Global Policy Studies. She graduated from Texas A&M University with Phi Beta Kappa honors in May 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. In Summer 2008, she was the Southwest Asia/Gulf Intern at the Henry L. Stimson Center, where she researched Iran and the Persian Gulf. She was also a member of a research team that helped develop a website investigating the possible effects of closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf by Iran.