Iran on the move

OpenDemocracy.org-Iran has experienced of one of the most exciting presidential elections since the Islamic revolution of 1979. All of the four candidates who appear on the ballot-paper in the first round of voting on 12 June 2009 may be handpicked by Iran’s Guardian Council, and each can be considered either a father or a child of the revolution. But two are reformists who embrace progressive agendas, and whose popular campaigns suggest that millions of Iranians - 70% of whom are under 30 years old - believe that Iran needs reform.

For Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it wasn’t supposed to be like this. The leader elected in June 2005 expected an easy contest from opposition candidates who could be easily discredited for past failures or outflanked on nationalist rhetoric. Instead, he has been forced to grapple with harsh criticism of his economic policy, foreign policy and human-rights record - and is resorting to extreme denunciation of his rivals as a way of shoring up his core support. Read more

Foreign Policy 101: What President Obama Could Learn…

For President Obama, who already has shown his desire to talk to Iranian leaders, there is no foreign policy lesson more helpful than that of Roxana Saberi’s case of arrest and release. It shows how the Iranian government functions and could teach the United States how to speak to hard-liners in Tehran. These lessons are:

1- Everything in Iran is impossible, and at the same time, anything is possible. One day you can be accused of espionage for no apparent reason, go to prison and three months later you could walk free, simple as that. On the contrary, you can go to prison under the same conditions and reason (like the case of Silva Harotonian who has been jailed since June 2008, simply, for working for an American NGO) and stay in prison for years. It all depends on many different factors. Uncertainty rules! Read more

Obama Is Ready To Lead, But How?

(HP-Feb 11, 2009)-President Barack Obama said in his inauguration speech that “America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.” But the question remains; what are the characteristics of this new leadership and how will it take itself out of the ditches inherited from his successor in post George Bush era? Read more

“Rice says Obama likely to follow Bush on foreign policy”

Obama’s choice toward the major U.S. foreign policy issues from the Middle East to Pakistan’s unstable situation, Russia’s influence in the Central Asia, and even North Korea’s nuclear program does not seem different than the Bush Administration’s path. And it seems to be a fact, and this is what Condi Rice has told FT recently: 

“The reason why there might be some elements of continuity is that what we’ve tried to do is to arrange or organise international groupings that can first manage and then resolve these very difficult problems in a multilateral way.” She was referring not just to the administration’s efforts over Iran but also its approach to North Korea and the Israel-Palestinian issue. (Read the rest of the story here.)

Selecting Hilary Clinton as Sec. of State and Obama’s Premise of Change

For all the people who have followed the primary presidential elections, and the nasty fight between the two rivals, choosing Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of the State is not only scary, but it also seems to be Obama’s first move to give up the values and ideals he advocated during the campaign. Yet it could also be interpreted as one of the smartest decision that president-elect has made in regards to his cabinet.  How can this be explained?

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