Prominent Iranian exile rejects new U.S. Iran policy
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, October 6, 2000
WASHINGTON — The United States has launched a new policy that plays
down Iran's missile and nonconventional weapons threats as part of an effort
to encourage reformist elements in Teheran.
U.S. officials said the policy seeks to positively encourage Iran
towards any gesture
of cooperation with Washington. They said Clinton administration
spokespeople, including those in the Pentagon, have been directed to change
their rhetoric toward the Islamic republic.
But the exiled Iranian leader of the Azadegan nationalist organization told the Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily most Iranians oppose the U.S. option of granting credibility to the clerics in charge of the Iranian regime.
"In fact, the one thing which could turn the Iranian people against the U.S. would be if Clinton helped reinforce clerical represssion of Iran," he said.
In the latest step, U.S. defense officials said Iran has cooperated in
stopping ships from smuggling oil out of Iraq in violation of United Nations
sanctions. Earlier, some of the same officials said Iran was in partnership
with Iraq in smuggling the oil and pocketing the profits.
Pentagon spokesman Craig Quigley said U.S. naval ships are foiling fewer
efforts to smuggle oil from Iraq through the Persian Gulf. Quigley said U.S.
vessels have stopped only five ships in September.
"We attribute that to the Iranian government being more restrictive in
the use of its territorial waters to allow smuggling to take place." the
Pentagon spokesman said. "And for that we're very, very
appreciative."
The new policy, U.S. officials said, stems from an assessment that the
Islamic republic is being changed by reformers close to President Mohammed
Khatami. They said that focusing on Iranian missiles of nuclear weapons
programs would only result in siege mentality in Teheran.
The result, they said, was that Pentagon officials said little about
last month's launch of Iran's Shihab-3 missile. That launch was reported to
have
failed when the engine broke down 100 seconds within flight.
U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
John Holum failed to mention Iran in an address on arms control and
nonproliferation in Washington last week. Holum did raise the North Korean
missile threat as well as Russia and China.
Another reason, officials said, is that highlighting Iran's missile
threat would serve critics of President Bill Clinton's decision to suspend
deployment of the National Missile Defense system. Clinton said his
successor should make that decision.
"I got told to cool my jets on speaking out against Iran," Gen. Anthony
Zinni, former commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central Command told the
Washington Post last week. "Their intelligence service is targeting us. They
continue to produce weapons of mass destruction. There's too much to be done
still."
Friday, October 6, 2000
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