Roxana: Good News From Iran
It's wonderful news that Roxana Saberi is free. I loved seeing the beautiful smile on her Iranian-Japanese-American face when she met reporters in Tehran.
It's also good news that the forces of common sense have prevailed in Iran. Saberi's spy conviction resulted in expressions of deep concern from the highest levels of the new Obama administration--from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Obama himself. Her harsh sentence and long imprisonment would have seriously soured U.S.-Iranian relations. So her surprise release must be viewed as a very encouraging sign--that the Iranian regime as a whole sees the value in dealing with Obama's olive branch.
This is a blow to the most extreme forces in Iran. Worth noting is the fact that President Ahmadinejad had personally intervened in favor of Saberi. When an Iranian hard-liner doesn't mind associating himself with the cause of an American accused of espionage in Iran--remember, the embassy was seized in 1979 because it was a "den of spies"--we've come a long way since the Khomeini revolution. Let's hope the trend continues.
--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo
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1
Best of wishes for her, and may I suggest a quick tour of US media circus to secure her financial share of pie while the oven is still hot! What would Salman Rushdie do?
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2
Scott,
Thank you for posting this blog in a timely fashion. I appreciate your interaction with us, your readers. We will probably continue to disagree over the circumstances indefinitely, but we can at least agree that this trend of positivity between the US and Iran is exactly what our global community desires and needs.
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If the Iranian regime is trying to tell us something, it's this: diplomacy works. Roxana was not harmed and she is now free. The same goes for the British navy personnel captured by the Iranian navy when they encroached into Iranian waters near the Strait of Hormuz last year. They were treated well and sent off with custom suits. In each event, the Iranians had legitimate allegations against the offenders.
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This, however, gave no basis for the typical pro-Israelis or Zionists to slander Iran in warmongering fashion based on this episode. The amount of op-eds and sensationalist articles was overwhelming. How nauseating, really.
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