How much more evidence do President Khatami's friends in the United States need before they conclude, as we do, that his "reforms" consist of half-measures and compromises aimed at shoring up a dead system, rather than at profound change of the way things are done in Iran?
On Sunday, April 23, a press court cracked down once again on the "reformist" press, this time closing 8 dailies, 3 weeklies, and 1 monthly publication, all of which were seen as sympathetic to President Khatami's reforms.
The court also indicted crusading reporter Akbar Ganji, whose investigations into government involvement in the anti-dissident assassination campaigns of recent years has won him respect both at home and abroad. Mr. Ganji has kept alive allegations that a hard-core elite of regime supporters within the Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) and the Revolutionary Guards Corps were instrumental in the killing of dissidents Parvaneh and Darioush Forouhar in 1998. Mr. Ganji has also accused regime thugs of having orchestrated the attempted assassination on a Tehran street in March of Saeed Hajjarian, an ally of President Mohammad Khatami and a key figure in the reformists' victory in February's parliamentary elections.
These most recent assaults on the press, coupled to efforts by hard-liners within the Judiciary and the Council of Guardians to invalidate the election of pro-reformers to Parliament recently, show that much remains to be done before democracy and respect for human rights come to Iran.
The Clinton administration has embarked on a misguided policy that offers rewards to the Tehran regime, without any evidence of fundamental change in Iran's policies or its human rights record.
It is time for all those who love freedom in the West to reassess their policies toward the Islamic Republic and to help pro-democracy forces inside Iran, instead of shoring up a failed regime with offers of trade and aid, as some in Europe and America have done.
FDI Director Kenneth Timmerman's article on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent opening to Iran that appeared in The Forward on April 14, 2000.
The 13 Persian dailies and periodicals that were closed on April 23, 2000:
Dailies:
Weeklies:
Monthly:
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director (exec@iran.org). FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org/.