ISTANBUL: US claims that Iran is part of an “axis of evil” supporting international terrorism have damaged the country’s fledgling democratic reform movement and ignore the complex battle reformers are waging against religious hardliners, according to political analysts and Western diplomats.
The accusation, levelled by President Bush during his State of the Union address, put Western-leaning officials in Iran on the defensive and forced them to join hands with conservative clerics in condemning the United States and defending their government, political observers in Iran said.
In a remarkable reaction to Bush’s comments, tens of thousands of protesters interrupted a speech on Monday by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami with chants of “Death to America!”
That slogan usually is shouted during speeches by hardline clerics, not during an address by Iran’s leading reformist and chief advocate of strengthening ties with the West.
Khatami and his allies control the elected, administrative wings of the Iranian state, and their moderate, conciliatory approach to politics in recent years has largely ended the country’s decades of international isolation and repaired its negative image abroad. But they have been locked in a desperate battle against conservative clerics, who under Iran’s Islamic theocracy control most of the real power and have blocked Khatami’s efforts to enact political, social and religious reforms.
Coming on the heels of Bush’s Jan 29 speech and at least partly because of it, analysts said, Iran on Friday rejected Britain’s proposed new ambassador, plunging relations between the two countries to their lowest point since they restored official contacts in 1998. The rejection came even though British officials have distanced themselves from Bush’s “axis of evil” comment, indicating that Iranian conservatives now have the upper hand over reformists, even in the international arena, analysts said. They said the speech also gave greater impetus to recent efforts by Iran and Iraq to heal their rocky relations.
“This was immensely damaging. It really, really hurt Khatami,” said a Western diplomat in Tehran interviewed by telephone. “Iran had been engaging in constructive diplomacy since Sept 11 — as constructive as anyone. Now, the conservatives are all saying, ‘See, we told you they’d screw you in the end.’ “
Tensions between reformists and conservatives had reached new heights even before Bush’s speech. Some analysts have interpreted Bush’s remarks as a sign that his administration has written off Khatami and his reform movement as a spent force.
“This really reversed the course of what was happening between the conservatives and reformists,” who seemed to be moving toward decisive showdowns on a host of issues, said a political analysts in Tehran.
Diplomats in Tehran said that US policies toward Iran suffer from a lack of understanding about the country and a dearth of reliable information about Iranian politics and society. The two countries severed ties during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Iranian officials angrily denied Bush’s accusations and challenged the United States to produce evidence backing the claims. Despite the denials, many foreign analysts accept that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and has stockpiles of chemical weapons.
Critics of US claims that Iran is behind international terrorism argue for drawing distinctions between the government of Iran and hardliners who apparently act without the approval or even knowledge of elected officials.
Additionally, many Muslim countries and some US allies say the key reason Iran is blamed for supporting terrorism is because it backs Palestinian groups fighting Israel. Iran and other countries see this as legitimate backing for a national liberation movement.
Analysts say that any official involvement by Iran in terrorism would likely be endorsed in secret by institutions that ultimately fall under the control of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s top political and religious authority. Unelected, conservative clerics under Khamenei control the military and intelligence services, the judiciary, state broadcasting agencies and religious oversight panels that often veto reforms approved by the elected government. The conservatives adamantly oppose normalizing relations with the United States and often have been accused of supporting and exporting terrorism, particularly — but not exclusively — aimed at Israel.
Bush seemed to point to the conservatives in his speech, saying that “Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hopes for freedom.”
This distinction, some analysts say, may explain recent US charges that Iran helped leaders of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network escape from Afghanistan, that it is fuelling opposition to the interim government by backing independent-minded regional leaders and that it tried to ship 50 tons of weapons, intercepted last month, to Palestinian groups fighting Israel.—Dawn/The Washington Post News Service.
