October 14, 2022
Many voices are heard clamoring for the United States to do more to support the opposition within the Islamic Republic but most of the suggestions for what the US should do are rather limp, much like what the United States is already doing.
Perhaps the strongest suggestion came from Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who, in a tweet October 2, urged the West to create and administer a strike fund for the families of protesters. But he did not say how Western countries would identify the needy strikers and get money to them in Iran.
His proposal came on the same day that Pahlavi slammed the Biden Administration for reportedly planning to unfreeze $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds held in South Korea. He angrily attacked Biden, saying, “You have yet to help our people. At least, don’t fund the bullets piercing the hearts of our youth!”
The account of the money being unfrozen came from the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the state news agency in Iran. But the US quickly denied the story and no funds have been unfrozen in the weeks since IRNA said they would be. Pahlavi’s hot-headed response, without first checking out the accuracy of the report, likely did not help his standing with officials of the Biden Administration.
Pahlavi also asked the European countries to recall all their ambassadors from Tehran.
Another proposal came from a group of 21 human rights groups largely based in North America and concerned about Iran, such as the Center for Human Rights in Iran and the Abdurrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran.
They sent a letter to Biden in early October listing five things they wanted him to do to support the protesters. The first called for him to condemn the Islamic Republic for its violence against protesters, something he had already been doing for weeks. Another called on him to urge the Islamic Republic to respect basic human rights, again something already being done.
Then it urged him to work with private technology companies to maker it easier for the Iranian people to gain access to the internet and to communicate among themselves, something that US administration has been doing for a decade.
The other two proposals urged Biden to work with other countries to launch a human rights investigation into the regime’s crackdown and to establish a UN investigation into crimes committed by the regime.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said, “The only way to break the impunity that empowers such actions is for UN member states to urgently establish an independent investigative and accountability mechanism for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Iran.”
Later, human rights activist Masih Alinejad wrote Biden with a list of 13 proposed policy changes to help Iranians. Most proposed stronger rhetoric, more sanctions and such things as a UN investigation. But she also called for expelling former officials of the Islamic Republic who now live in the United States, such as former Ambassador to Germany Hossein Mousavian, who works at Princeton University, and former Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who now teaches at Oberlin College in Ohio. She also proposed suspending the nuclear talks and making human rights compliance a condition for resumption.
But none of these proposals imposed any concrete penalties on the regime. All of the proposals could be and almost certainly would be simply ignored by the regime and brushed aside.
The Biden Administration has adopted three basic policies since the protests erupted in mid-September.
First, it has imposed sanctions on a few dozen officials linked to the crackdown, including leaders of the Morality Police (Gasht-e Ershad). But those sanctions have little bite since they only freeze any funds the officials have in the United States, which is likely to be zero, and bar Americans from doing business with them. The highest-ranking person sanctioned is Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi. But the sanctions on him are even less substantive since he has already been under US sanctions since 2009. (Canada, which has not sanctioned anyone in Iran for nine years, has now sanctioned 34 more officials and entities. And the EU has said it will soon announce a list of sanctioned officials. But like US sanctions, they are token actions.)
Second, the Biden Administration has boasted of taking action to promote access to the internet by anointing a proposal from Elon Musk allowing his Starlink satellites to broadcast into Iran. But a number of lawyers say he already has had that authority under exemptions to sanctions issued a decade ago. More importantly, however, for people in Iran to connect with Starlink they must have a 30-pound (14-kilo) ground terminal. No one has said how such terminals would be distributed in Iran in large enough numbers to have any impact. (See photo above at right.)
Third, Biden and other Administration officials have made a number of public statements condemning repression in Iran. Biden, in a statement October 3, said, “The United States stands with Iranian women and all citizens who are inspiring the world with their bravery.
This rhetoric did go a little beyond the rhetoric used in 2009 by the Obama Administration. Obama confined himself to condemning Iran for violently repressing protests, but never issued any words endorsing the protesters’ condemnation of the 2009 presidential election as a fraud. Similarly, Biden has not endorsed those protesters who are calling for regime change and urging “Death to the Dictator.” He essentially is doing what Obama did denouncing the Islamic Republic for repressing the Iranian people.
His statement quoted above “The United States stands with Iranian women and all citizens who are inspiring the world with their bravery” appears to go a step beyond opposing violent repression, but still embodies nothing of substance; it does not say what “standing” with the Iranian people means in terms of policy.
US National Public Radio spoke October 6 to Robert Malley, the officially-titled “Special Envoy to Iran” who, by decree of the Supreme Leader, isn’t allowed into Iran and can’t even talk by phone or email to Iranian officials. Here is how he explained US policy regarding the disorders in Iran.
“What the United States wants is a government in Iran that is respectful of the fundamental rights of its people. It’s not a policy of regime change. It’s a policy of backing … people who are protesting peacefully, because they want to be able not to wear a headscarf or to live their lives in ordinary ways, and yet they face an oppressive system…. And, you know, we hear Iranian officials blame the US, blame Israel, blame others. They shouldn’t look so far. They should look closer at home.”
As to the charge of the Supreme Leader that the protests are fomented by the US and others foreigners, Malley said: “Nobody is demonstrating because of the United States. Nobody in Iran is angry at their government because of the United States. They’re angry because of the policies of their government…. And, you know, the Iranians [government] did protest against the fact that we loosened our sanctions to allow free flow of information for Iran, for the Iranian people. And it probably is the first time, ironically, that we’ve heard Iran complain about our easing sanctions.”