Iran International
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Sunday that the US is pursuing de-escalation with Iran, but it remains unclear if Washington has made any offers to Tehran.
Speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS program, Blinken announced that “We’re now in a place where we’re not talking about a nuclear agreement. We are very clearly making it known to them that they need to take actions to de-escalate, not escalate, the tensions that exist in our relationship across a whole variety of fronts.”
Iranian officials and government media have yet to react to Blinken’s statement. Official and semi-official government media were silent on Monday but a ‘reformist’ website in Tehran, not directly controlled by the government, published the news about his remarks with a clear distortion.
Speaking about long negotiations in 2021 and 2022 that came to a deadlock last September, Blinken told CNN that “An agreement was on the table. Iran either couldn’t or wouldn’t say yes.” However, Etemad Online translated the sentence to, “Iran has not made a decision yet.”
Blinken did not explain what de-escalation means from the Biden administration viewpoint. Clearly, high levels of uranium enrichment and stockpiling fissile material for nuclear bombs is the most provocative policy Tehran currently pursues. But is the administration also telling the Islamic Republic they have to also de-escalate in their provocations in the region, such as attacks on US forces and open incitement of terror attacks on Israel?
There is also the issue of Iran supplying kamikaze drones to Russia that the administration has said is one of its pre-conditions for resumption of full nuclear talks. So far, Iran has shown no inclination to de-escalate in any of these areas.
Blinken also did not say what the United States is promising Iran in return for de-escalatory steps. Certainly, Tehran would demand the lifting of at least some sanctions. Already, the Biden administration has not been rigorously enforcing existing oil export sanctions that has allowed Iran to increase its exports to as high as 1.5 million barrels a day. Before former President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, Iran was shipping around two million barrels. One can argue that Iran has almost overcome the oil sanctions, although US banking sanctions are still deterring most banks in other countries from doing business with Iran.
But if we assume that de-escalation applies only to less enrichment or a cap of 60-percent uranium purity in exchange for lifting some critical sanctions, then that was Iran’s plan all along. In December 2020, the Iranian parliament passed legislation to enrich at higher levels to force the US to lift sanctions. In fact, the bill was called the ‘Strategic Action to Eliminate Sanctions and Defend Iranian Nation's Interests.’
That negotiating tactic was initiated a month earlier in November by parliament, when Joe Biden won the presidential election and Tehran was certain that his administration was determined to reverse Trump’s decision and revive the JCPOA.
Now, the administration just hopes for de-escalation while it knows that Iran will use every means of pressure to project power.
“We are continuing to work out, to develop, to flesh out every possible option for dealing with the problem if it asserts itself,” Blinken said.
Earlier this month Iran tried to seize to commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf and the US Navy intervened to prevent it. Immediately plans were put in motion to reinforce the US naval presence in the region, dispatching more warplanes and warships.
Iran will not confront the United States where a clear deterrent signal has been issued. It most probably will hit back elsewhere or use new tactics.
Salehi told Etemad newspaper that bilateral relations with the United States were fraught with negativity from the very beginning of the Islamic revolution and has remained so for 44 years. The two countries have negotiated on several issues in the past, such as prisoner exchanges, Afghanistan, and the nuclear issue, but they have never held comprehensive talks to resolve underlying differences.
“Now, considering all regional and international conditions, it is good and appropriate opportunity to hold multi-faceted political talks with the West, including Europe and the United States,” Salehi was quoted as saying.
It is said that Salehi was the Iranian negotiator who first launched talks with the Obama administration in 2013 in Oman to agree to start talks over Iran’s nuclear program. The process led to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, or the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Salehi was foreign minister from 2010-2013 and he also headed the Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) of Iran before and after his tenure as chief diplomat.
As head of AEOI, he was involved in the JCPOA talks, but the chief negotiator was then-foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Salehi said that Iran had grievances against the United States during and after the revolution and it always expected an apology from Washington for alleged interference in its domestic politics in 1953, However, Salehi argued that when Secretary of State Madeline Albright once acknowledged US mistakes, Iran should have accepted it as an apology and smoothed out relations with Washington.
The former chief diplomat also had a message for hardliners currently dominating the government in Iran. “Some people mistakenly believe that being revolutionary gives them the freedom to act without bounds. However, the truth is quite the opposite. Being revolutionary demands the utmost thinking, rationality, and knowledge. A true revolutionary must be well-versed in political knowledge.”
Iranians should also consider the fact, that at the end of World War Two, it was the United States that forced the Soviet Union to withdraw from vast swaths of Iran’s territory, which Moscow could have easily colonized, Salehi pointed out. Americans and Europeans also did not understand the Iranian revolution in the late 1970s and were caught off guard, the former foreign minister argued. Many believed at the time that this was not a clergy-led revolution and suspected that the Soviet Union or China were behind it.
In short, as an Iranian regime insider, Salehi tried to present a more balanced view of the United States and urge comprehensive talks, that US presidents have on numerous occasions urged the Islamic Republic to agree to. However, Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei who has been at the helm of power since 1989, has opposed wide-ranging talks, especially after 2018, when the former US administration withdrew from the JCPOA and imposed sanctions.
The Iranian regime wants to maintain is freedom of action in the Middle East, where it has built an arc of proxy forces from Yemen to Iraq and Lebanon. The regime has also isolated the country from the international economy, maintaining an overwhelming system of government ownership of major companies, banks and media.
Salehi, viewed as one of the more balanced and polished Islamic Republic officials, has occasionally spoken out in the past two years urging better governance, democracy, and a stronger economy.
Last November, current foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian invited his predecessors, including Salehi for a “friendly meeting and discussion” that local media called as urgent in nature. This was during fierce anti-regime protests and after talks to revive the JCPOA reached a deadlock.
A group of prominent Iranian human rights activists and dissidents issued a public letter and petition, urging Javaid Rehman, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, to secure the release of recently imprisoned political activists’ and journalists’ family members in Iran.
The letter titled “Condemning the Iranian Government’s Detainment of Political Activists’ and Journalists’ Family Members, and Discrimination Based on Ethnicity and Gender” was published in July in English and Persian.
When asked about the letter, a spokesperson for the US State Department told Iran International, “We are aware of this case and will continue to monitor its developments. We once again call on Iranian authorities to cease the arbitrary detentions. Iranian authorities have repeatedly violated Iranians’ human rights and punished them for exercising their fundamental freedoms. “
The US spokesperson added “While charges in this case have not been announced, sham trials and executions are key components of the regime’s attempt to suppress any form of dissent.The United States continues to coordinate with allies and partners to hold Iranian authorities accountable for their human rights abuses.”
The letter noted that in early July, “news emerged of the arrest of Saman Pashai[sic]. Pashai, a Kurdish citizen and the world’s third-ranked junior wrestling champion is Sardar Pashaei's brother, a former World Wrestling Champion and national team coach. Sardar Pashai had notably spoken out against the Islamic Republic since the death sentence of Navid Afkari, a former wrestling champion in Iran and a protester against the regime.”
The letter continued: “On September 23, 2022, Latifeh Pashai (Layla Saghezi), a women’s rights activist and Sardar Pashaei’s sister, was detained and interrogated about her brother’s activities. Security agents had previously summoned and questioned Sardar Pashaei’s parents.”
Sardar Pashaei told Iran International that“By arresting my younger brother, who is a professor and a wrestling champion, the authoritarian Islamic regime is sending my family and me a message: ‘Be quiet. Don’t criticize the regime. Don’t create problems.’”
He continued that “The government's ploys to silence us, either by holding our loved ones hostage or sending its mercenaries to kill us, will not help them keep power. Iranian authorities are now using arrests and in some cases the death penalty as a tool of political repression—but we have a message for the regime: We will not give up our fight for freedom.”
According to the letter, on “June 18, 2023, agents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence blocked the entryway to Iranshahr in the Sistan and Baluchistan province. They subsequently arrested Amer Dadafarin, the 18-year-old son of Fariba Baluch, and Mohammad Mollazehi, the 25-year-old brother of the same, both relatives of the Baluch human rights activist. Their whereabouts remain undisclosed.“
Speaking from Britain on WhatsApp with Iran International, Fariba Baluch said “They arrested my son and brother for nothing. Just for my activities.” Baluch is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime’s repression of people in Baluchestan.
Iranian regime security forces murdered more than 100 people in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan, in the autumn of 2022 in what has become known as “Bloody Friday.”
Baluch spoke in April in the European Parliament and said: “Over 20 of those killed in the protests were children under 18. Baloch were killed, wounded, arrested and suppressed more violently than anywhere else in Iran.”
She added “Being a woman on one hand and a Baluch on the other hand, means systematic and double discrimination against them, as the women of Balochestan not only suffer from the religious government policies, but also local social/cultural oppressions more than any other region in Iran.”
The public letter was authored by Lily Pourzand, women and gender issues professional; Parvaneh Hosseini, lecturer and civil activist; Moein Khazaeli, lawyer; Samaneh Savadi, gender equality activist; Hamed Farmand, children’s rights activist; and Nasim Mogharab (Sahra), women’s rights activist.
When asked about the letter, a spokesman for United Nations Security General António Guterres referred Iran International to Ravina Shamdasani, a UN Human Rights Spokesperson for Rehman, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran Affairs.Shamdasani did not immediately respond.
Iran International reached out to the International Olympic Committee and United World Wrestling. Hualan Jiang, a representative for the IOC, referred Iran International to the IOC press office. The IOC declined to comment. Iran International also contacted Human Rights Watch and HRW’s Director of Global Initiatives, Minky Worden, who deals with the persecution of athletes. A HRW spokesperson wrote, “We regret to inform you that we are unable to meet your deadline due to the availability of our experts. Apologies for the inconvenience this has caused, but we hope to be more accommodating of future requests. We wish the best of luck with your reporting and hope to hear from you in the future.”
Iran International offered to extend the filing of its article to HRW to secure a comment. HRW and Worden declined to comment. Critics argue that HRW failed to intervene prior to the execution of Navid Afkari. On the day that Iran’s regime hanged Afkari, HRW issued a statement.