[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

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Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Democracy for Iran

December 08, 2004
The Wall Street Journal
Review & Outlook



We keep reading that there are "no good options" for diminishing the threat of Iran's nuclear program. And certainly preemptive military strikes are an imperfect solution at best, though the option has to be kept on the table. But that still doesn't explain why the Bush Administration has been so reluctant to support Iranians who want to overthrow the bomb-building mullahs.

Opposition to the Islamic Republic remains alive and well in Iran , despite the best efforts of Supreme Leader Ali Khameini and his loyal ayatollahs to kill it. On Monday the ineffectual Mohammed Khatami, the outgoing "reformist" president, was heckled repeatedly while speaking at Tehran University. "What happened to your promised freedoms," the students asked, accusing him of "extreme weakness toward the opponents of democracy."

For readers unfamiliar with the current Iranian system, all the real power lies with the Supreme Leader and an unelected body called the Council of Guardians, who must approve all candidates for office. Mr. Khatami was the more liberal of the two major candidates the mullahs approved to succeed former President Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1997, and he won in a landslide. But in office he refused to stand up for reform as the clerics vetoed laws curbing the power of the Guardian Council, thus earning the contempt on display Monday.

In parliamentary elections in February, the Khameini crew abandoned all pretense of running a real democracy by disqualifying scores of sitting deputies allied with Mr. Khatami. About 100 newspapers have been closed in recent years. And in the presidential vote set for next year the hardliners look set to recapture the office. Rumor has it that Mr. Rafsanjani -- once hailed by Foggy Bottom and the Council on Foreign Relations as a "pragmatist," but who has said openly that Iran must have the atomic bomb to threaten Israel -- is interested in having his old job back.

And it's not just students who are unhappy at the prospect. The New York Sun reported yesterday that a new group called Tahkimeh Vahdat, or "strongest unity," has been formed to unite all shades of opinion in the Iranian opposition behind having a simple referendum on the powers of the Supreme Leader. The group's leader is a former ally of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and it is reported to include many other distinguished individuals both inside and outside Iran .

One of the most frustrating arguments against supporting Iran's democratic opposition is that the nuclear program is a matter of Persian national pride, and that any government would seek the bomb. But it should be obvious that a democratic Iran would be much less of a threat than the current regime, which is the prime sponsor of Hezbollah and perhaps now al Qaeda as well.

The national pride argument probably isn't true in any case. The New York Times reported on Monday on an Iranian analyst who has survey data to suggest many Iranians see the nuclear program for what it is -- a means to help the current regime consolidate its power. "The clerics want to get hold of the bomb to rule for another 50 years," a man named Reza is quoted as saying.

It is becoming increasingly notable that a Bush Administration committed to democracy everywhere else in the Middle East, and now in Ukraine, has little to say about the subject regarding Iran . This is not just a matter of consistency but of national security, and time is not on our side. A word from the White House in support of the new referendum movement would be a good place to start. It is hardly beyond imagining that scenes like those in Kiev might be repeated on the streets of Tehran.