Region | Iran
US heaps pressure, criticism on Iran
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is visiting the region, warned Iran also of a new draft of further sanctions to be presented to the UN Security Council next month.
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor
- Published: 00:00 February 16, 2010
- Image Credit: AP
- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal (right) upon her arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Monday.
Dubai: The Americans are — publicly at least — waving many sticks at Iran, but have forgotten to offer a carrot.
The pressure on Iran is mounting, with the US accusing the country of human-rights violations, seeking a nuclear bomb, and, most recently of being a "military dictatorship".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is visiting the region, warned Iran also of a new draft of further sanctions to be presented to the UN Security Council next month.
"We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said.
"They are in charge of the nuclear programme.
"It's a far cry from the Islamic republic that had elections and different points of view within the leadership circle, that is part of the reason why we are so concerned with what we see is going on there."
However, some Iranian analysts believe what American officials are saying publicly is different from what is going on behind the scenes. They referred to the shuttling of envoys between Iran and the US, including the visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Tehran yesterday. Erdogan, whose country has offered to mediate in the Iranian-western nuclear row, made the trip from Doha.
"What more can they do?" prominent Iranian analyst Ameer Mousavi responded when asked about the possibility of further sanctions. "Iran is facing the toughest declared and undeclared sanctions for three decades now ... Iran has experienced all forms of sanctions, and I believe these statements came within the framework of public relations to satisfy the Zionist entity and, unfortunately, some Arab countries," Mousavi told Gulf News in an interview.
Taking over
During her visit to Qatar, which was followed by a trip to Saudi Arabia, Clinton said the Revolutionary Guard Corps — a pillar of Iran's regime — appeared to have gained more power than the government. The Revolutionary Guard is widely believed to have a hand in many non-military fields in Iran, including oil resources and nuclear technology.
Clinton's visit to the two Gulf countries is part of the US administration's efforts to gain support for a tougher stand against Iran's nuclear programme.
It coincided with a furry of diplomatic and military contacts in the Middle East, including a visit to Egypt on Sunday by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clinton's top three deputies — James Steinberg, Jacob Lew and William Burns — will be in the region in coming days, and a Clinton aide said General David Petraeus, chief of US Central Command with responsibility for US military operations across the Middle East, would also be in the region.
Commenting on the readiness of the Gulf countries to cooperate with Washington, Saudi political analyst Waheed Hamzeh Hashem said, "There will be a response, but it will never reach the level of direct confrontation or direct enmity with Iran."
The Gulf states, Hashem continued, are also "concerned that Iran will be enraged and the political and security situation will escalate [then]," Hashem told Gulf News.
On another front, western powers have accused Iran of "bloody repression" after the elections.
In a public review of Iran's record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Britain, France, the United States and other western nations expressed deep concern about reports of killings, arrests and torture in a clampdown on dissent. They called on Iran to open up to visits by UN investigators.
Bloody repression
"The authorities are waging bloody repression against their own people, who are peacefully claiming their rights," French Ambassador Jean Baptiste Mattei said.
Iran denounces western concerns as political gestures, saying it respects human rights.
In its first review by the Human Rights Council, which looks at the record of all UN member states one-by-one, Tehran's envoy Mohammad Javad Larijani said Iran was in "full compliance with the relevant international commitments it has taken on in a genuine and long-term approach to safeguard human rights."
Several Iranian figures and groups urge the Iranian leader to end human-rights violations in the country.
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