What happens when Iran rejects the Olive Branch?
The Bush administration, at first, wanted to change the regime in Iran. At the end of Bush’s term in office and after major setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan the Bush administration attempted to engage in diplomatic negotiations with Iran. When Obama came to power, talk about regime change disappeared altogether, instead the new administration focuses on changing “the behavior” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
One of the first things Obama did was to offer Iran an Olive Branch by sending a videotaped appeal to Iran asking for a “new beginning” of diplomatic engagement. Most political commentators and governments in the West praised Obama’s appeal and the future relationship between Iran and the United states looked bright. Now the ball was in the hands of the Mullahs in Tehran, and because they had offered the Bush administration assistance in Afghanistan and to some degree in Iraq, political commentators started to speculate on how Iran would accept Obama’s Olive Branch.
Our party, the Democratic party of Iranian Kurdistan, welcomed Obama´s new approach, partly due to the fact that we think that conflicts should be solved politically, but also because Obama’s Olive branch have pushed the regime in Tehran in to a corner. Now, Iran cannot blame their actions on Bush not wanting to solve the conflict peacefully. But in meetings with different government officials and political parties in the west we have warned that Iran is only interested in talks and negotiations with the international community in order to buy time for its nuclear program.
Several actions taken by Iran after Obama’s videotaped appeal have shown that Iran is not interested in a “new beginning”. Iran has continued to work on its nuclear program, Iran still threatens Israel and its support for terrorist proxies is still on the rise. Iran will, eventually, reject Obama’s Olive Branch altogether when it is confident that it has the power to do so without fear of military reprisal.
What should be done?
Focus in the west has been on Iran’s nuclear program, its threats towards Israel and its support for terrorist organizations. There is almost no talk about the regimes oppression against Iran’s different nationalities. When Iran accuses Israel of being racist no one in the west raises the issue of Iranian racism and oppression. Iran has made itself a champion defender of Arab Palestinians rights, but at the same time it subjects Iran’s Ahwazi Arab population to the worst kind of oppression. Activists from different nationalities in Iran face the worst kinds of punishment for basic things like expressing their views or dressing in a particular way just because that they are from a specific ethnic group.
In Iran Azeri-Turks are portrayed as “donkeys” and the Kurds as “savages.” These racist stereotypes are clearly expressed in various jokes and “funny stories” among the Persians of Iran. Stereotypes are not “innocent” social phenomenons, but the Iranian state, which is controlled by the Persians, has transformed the identity of other nationalities to a “threat” against the country’s “territorial integrity”. By doing so it has legitimized an extensive state and military repression of the Azeri-Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Balochs.
The west needs to realize that the Islamic Republic derives the justification for its existence from an antagonistic and conflictual relationship with the U.S. and the West. The regime needs to portray the U.S. and Israel as external enemies. For that reason, it cannot develop normal relations with the international community.
The notion that if a “reformist” or a “pragmatist” would replace Ahmedinejad, the west could come to some kind of understanding with Iran is ridiculous, the reformist era in Iran is over. Khatami, who had a majority in the parliament, could not and did not want to bring about change. The system doesn’t allow change.
The west should support the democratic and secular opposition; there is no likelihood that the relationship between the west and Iran will change if the regime isn’t changed. And the only possibility is if the opposition is empowered and supported politically by the international community.
