Prominent political prisoners decline to sign letter urging US to end sanctions

Demidigest.net - Several jailed Iranian dissidents, including the celebrated lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh (left), have declined to sign an open letter to US President Barack Obama calling for sanctions to be lifted. The initiative prompted criticism from exiled Iranian activists who suggest that the detainees had been manipulated by the regime.

Sanctions are a collective punishment of the Iranian people, some 50 prisoners write in a letter published in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

“We, the undersigned current and former political prisoners in Iran, are writing this letter to bring to your attention the devastating effects of crippling economic sanctions,” the letter begins.

The conflict over Iran’s nuclear program has become a “perilous contest” with the US, which has undermined mutual trust, it continues, suggesting that the recent election of Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president signals the opportunity for a “new era of mutual understanding”.

The signatories insist that Rouhani’s record of negotiations over the nuclear issue shows that he is a firm proponent of dialogue.

“In our view, the tenure of this government may be the last chance to bring this conflict to a reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution,” the letter says. The letter’s signatories include such leading opposition figures as the reformist politician Mohsen Aminzadeh, and Faezeh Hashemi – the daughter of the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The letter is reminiscent of Cold War-era “peace movements” manipulated by the Soviet , said a leading Iranian activist.

“My respect for Iran’s most principled and courageous political prisoners — including Sotoudeh, Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Zeidabadi (left) and Heshmat Tabarzadi — grew by leaps and bounds overnight,” said Mariam Memarsadeghi, director of the Tavaana: E-learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society.

“They refused to join the unquestioning anti-American group-think pervading “reformist” circles and said no to signing a letter blaming America and economic sanctions for all of Iran’s problems.”

“Eastern …bloc dissidents, most notably Vaclav Havel, were also well aware of the perils of “peace” movements to both freedom and peace,” she noted:

In the letter, not a word is mentioned about their unjust imprisonment, their conditions in prison, the rising number of executions, and the mounting, systematic repression against civil society and society at large. Maybe they really do believe that this can be a path to peace, but their blindness to the injustice they themselves are suffering can only be counterproductive to the struggle for freedom, just as their support for Khamenei’s ambitions for a nuclear bomb can only prevent peace.

The damage to the Iranian economy through sanctions is “an existential threat” to the Islamic Republic, says a leading analyst.

‘Maintaining revolutionary theocracy’

“But often forgotten in the West is the Iranian regime’s other major source of instability: the deep splits caused by the 2009 presidential election and subsequent arrest of three influential reformist leaders, Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hussein Mousavi, and his wife Zahra Rahnavard,” writes Alireza Nader, a senior analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

During his election campaign, Rouhani referred to lessening the “securitized” atmosphere in Iran, but the release of the three reformist leaders could intensify factional conflict within the system,” he notes:

Rouhani is a conservative regime supporter, although of a different cut than Ahmadinejad. He believes in Iran’s system of religious rule, but does not believe in “exporting” the revolution. For him, the Islamic Republic should strengthen itself at home before engaging in foreign adventures.

The newly-elected president would like to decrease repression in Iran and make the people more “prosperous”. But this does not translate into a belief in fundamental reforms. Most likely, Rouhani would like to see a re-emergence of pre-2009 Iran, in which the left and conservative wings of the Islamic Republic co-existed and worked together in maintaining the revolutionary theocracy.

Rouhani’s cabinet selection is a major indicator of his intentions, says Nader, but “the fate of the long-suffering Karroubi, Mousavi, and Rahnavard could be the most important indicator of all.”

Less than a week after Rouhani’s Aug. 4 inauguration, it is too soon to say that Iran will be a kinder, gentler place than it was under Ahmadinejad, analysts Barbara Slavin writes for Al-Monitor:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, still has the final say on internal security matters, along with key officials from the Revolutionary Guard and the intelligence establishment. But with the return to the presidency of a centrist …. the oppressive mood in Tehran has lifted slightly and the political kaleidoscope is shifting again.

“The change is particularly poignant for that group of Iranian political figures who began life as leftists after the 1979 revolution and evolved into Reformists,” Slavin says. “Like bears waking up from a four- and in some cases eight-year-long hibernation, many are slowly re-entering the public sphere.”

Rouhani’s cabinet selection has been interpreted as a promising signal by some observers, noting the diminished representation of Revolutionary Guard Corps representatives. But others have highlighted the relative absence of authentic reformist voices as a sign that Rouhani remains a consummate regime insider.

“Some human rights activists have questioned the nomination of Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as justice minister, Ahmadinejad’s interior minister from 2005-2008” Slavin writes. “Pour-Mohammadi is a former deputy intelligence minister said to be implicated in the execution of thousands of dissidents in 1988 and the assassinations of intellectuals a decade later.”

Rohani faces two practical tests if he is to placate the Iranian public, says Andrew Apostolou, a Middle East analyst based in Washington D.C.:

First, can he exert any influence over important issues, such as economic policy? Can he get rid of the corrupt multiple exchange rate system and tame inflation? Second, is Rohani willing to change direction? For example, can he release some of Iran’s high-profile political prisoners, such as the lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.