Inauguration Day in Teheran
There's nothing like being surrounded by a crowd chanting "Death to America" on the most historic American Presidential Inauguration Day in living memory to make even a foreign correspondent on a coveted assignment feel homesick. The first day of my first trip to Iran coincided with a demonstration at Teheran University in support of the Palestinians of Gaza, and the couple thousand students who gathered in a giant covered payer ground on campus played out the standard Islamic Resistance to Israel and America tropes. "The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader," they chanted. "Israel will be destroyed and Gaza is victorious." Someone passed around a petition to the president asking him to allow student paramilitary activists to go fight the Zionists. Later, part of the crowd reconvened at the former American Embassy and burned posters of Bush and Obama.
Doubtless much of the sound and fury of the day's events was routine. (As soon as it became known that that Iran's President Ahmadinejad had canceled a scheduled appearance, about half the crowd got up and left.) And even if it wasn't the cathartic day of redemption that I -- along with many other Americans in the Middle East who have had a close up view of the previous administration's policies in the region -- would wish for, it was a useful splash of cold water. Despite the overture to the Muslim world contained in Obama's speech, and his not so-coded message to Iran and its allies in the Middle East ( "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" ), the hard realities of the region aren't going to disappear anytime soon.
The talk in Washington is that the Obama administration may be preparing a Grand Bargain to offer Teheran, some kind of re-alignment in the balance of power in the not-so-cold war between American and Israel and its Sunni Muslim allies on the one hand (Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iran) and Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah on the other hand. The idea fixed in American minds now is that "all roads lead to Teheran" i.e. that Iran is both the agent behind most Middle Eastern problems -- from Iranian backed anti-Israeli militant groups to the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program -- and the place to solve them.
But seen from Teheran, there is little that the United Sates has to offer in any kind of bargain. Is America going to allow Iran to have the nuclear program that most of its citizens believe is their national right? Is the White House going to do an about face on Israel, and become a neutral Arab-Israeli broker in the the eyes of the region? As one of the students demonstrating yesterday in Teheran said to me when I asked her what she thought of Obama: "The policies of all the Presidents of America are the same," she said. "I hope by some miracle Obama is different, but the view they all share is violence and oppression." Which was her way, I guess, of saying there is a bi-partisan Washington consensus of support for Israel and for Arab oil autocracies.
But likewise, there may also be less that Iran can deliver than Washington hopes. Can Iranian clerics really flip a switch and shut down all the various intricate Middle Eastern conflicts? After the demonstrations, my friend Thomas Erdbrink (the Washington Post correspondent) and I visited Hamas' headquarters in a chic neighborhood in the northern part of the city. When we asked the Hamas Teheran representative, Osama Abdul Moti, if he thought that Iran would ever abandon Hamas as part of a bargain with America, he scoffed. Iranian officials have always stressed that their support to the Palestinian cause was "brotherly, strong and strategic," he said. Besides, even if Iran did stop supporting Hamas, it's not like Hamas is going to put down its weapons. "We have been fighting Israel for the last 60 years," he said. " We will continue our struggle until we reach our objectives."
--Andrew Lee Butters/Teheran
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Andrew,
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Please tell Osama Abdul Mofti that Iran supports the two-state solution and always has.
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"The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader," they chanted. "Israel will be destroyed and Gaza is victorious." You were in Iran and not the Temple of Doom, right Andrew? These kids needs to lay off the acid.
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There is a 70 million person population in Iran. If 70,000 people (supposedly) signed up to fight against Zionists with their lives, that's only
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Most Iranians I know support America, Israel, and wish death upon no one. However, most of us also disagree with the policy of giving Israel monetary aid and armaments, most of which have been used aggressively against civilian populations resulting in 460+ children dying, over 400,000 people without homes and countless others wounded. There was already a humanitarian crisis there caused by Israeli military blockades.
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I'm an American and I don't want my taxpayer money going into highly lethal weaponry for Israel's killing sprees. -
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Bad HTML.
I was saying before: "There is a 70 million person population in Iran. If 70,000 people (supposedly) signed up to fight against Zionists with their lives, that's only" 0.1% of the population. As far as Iranians go, these people do not come close to representing popular Iranian opinions about America and Israel. -
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As long as US policies in regard with Iran begin with negative assumptions, nothing can be solved, simple thank you for Iranian help in Afghanistan and Iraq goes a long way for any healty relationship, let along thanking Iran help by averting another long term Israelis occupation of Lebanon few years back, sanction and containment policies have been tried for past 30 years against Iran without any advantages for US, Iranian people aspiration is for stronger and independent Iran regardless of who is running her government at any giving time in her history, so many have come and gone but only those who succeeded in making Iran stronger are remembered positively by people as Immortals
It's time for fresh innovative policy not rehash of AIPAC design foreign policy which was dictated by Tel Aviv for US administrations for decades now! -
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It begs the question - when will Iran positively contribute in order to move towards peace in the Middle East. Whilst they continue in their belligerent fashion, peace will remain just an illusion.
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Shocked! Shocked I am that Iranian students at government-run universities continue to chant "Death to America." Were the Bush-haters wrong? Could it be that radical elements in the ME don't hate Bush so much as the idea of America? Could it be that they don't differntiate between presidents because all presidents basically stand for the same ideas? Could it be that the inauguration of a president with audacious hope and an unhuman surplus of nuance hasn't persuaded any ME countries or factions that have enmity toward the U.S. to come around to our way of thinking? I really don't see how that's possible. The formula I've been hearing for the past 6 months is Bush=evil=bad policy=everyone hates us but Obama=change=nuance=good policy=everyone loves us. That is rock-solid, unassailable logic. It can't be wrong. Someone please disabuse the Iranians of passe opinions.
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Did Obama Wink at Tehran?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trita-parsi/did-obama-wink-at-tehran_b_159567.html -
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What "cathartic day of redemption," were you looking for, Andrew? The day the mullahs launch their bomb at Israel?
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So far new US envoys to broader Middle-east looks positively promising, Mitchell and Holbrooke are seems to be good referees in that part of world since both don't have any bias toward local players there, lets keep our finger crossed in case of Iran affair envoy if there is going to be any, both Holbrooke Stan's responsibilities and Mitchell Semites civil war responsibilities which are being waged in historical Persian realm, and Iran have to be somehow be involved in whatever happens in that part of world as a partner.
Pres. Obama keep up the good work and select a impartial Iran envoy if you have to, not a Zionist one; Indyk or Ross or Medoff or ...!
p.s. yah Andrew, why don't you review some anti-hysteria medications for few of your blogger nuts:D -
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By the way Andrew, enjoy your visit to "old hippies trail rest stop", or maybe "old silk road rest stop" do better convey my well wishes to you, anyway don't make it an all-business trip now, peace out!
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Andrew,
The scenes you describe are accurate; such protests are common in Tehran. But such scenes are also manufactured, and are inorganic. If you wanted to stay true to the title of your piece, you would have had to look away from the protests in the streets and listened to the conversations in people's homes. In Tehran--and most of Iran, for that matter--there is a silent majority. This is the same majority that poured out in the hundreds of thousands on September 11th to hold an impromptu candlelight vigil. With President Obama's continued public commitment to engage Iran, believe me when I say that the Iranian people are absolutely ecstatic about Obama's election. The regime, on the other hand, feels threatened by his popularity, and so in that sense their end of any "grand bargain" would have to be considered. Either way, that you weren't able to break through the superficial facade that the government puts up, and as a reporter, capture any of that saddens me.
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