Pawns in a Power Struggle
Four detained Iranian-Americans seem to be caught up in growing tensions between Washington and Tehran
This is a dicey time for Iranian-Americans to be visiting their homeland. In recent months, at least four Iranian-Americans have been detained by Iran's security services. Three are accused of endangering Iran's security and of espionage—allegations that they, their families, and their employers deny. The fourth is said to be under investigation on security-related issues.
The detentions appear to be a byproduct of worsening U.S.-Iranian tensions, though officials in Tehran assert the legal issues are not linked to anything other than alleged misdeeds. The Iranian government does not recognize dual citizenship, and, after President Bush recently called for the four to be freed "immediately and unconditionally," Tehran in essence told Washington to butt out. The Bush administration says the four are not spies or government employees. But there is an indisputable sense of vulnerability. At any given time, there are thousands of Iranian-Americans visiting Iran.
The Americans being detained are Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Parnaz Azima, a journalist with U.S.-funded Radio Farda; Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning specialist affiliated with George Soros's Open Society Institute; and an American who apparently has not yet been formally charged, Ali Shakeri, who helped found the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding at the University of California-Irvine.
Lurking in the background of this standoff is a $75 million U.S. fund to promote democracy in the Islamic republic. U.S. officials do not identify who receives the money, but the Iranians apparently suspect that at least some of the four are among them. Hard-line Iranian officials view the democracy fund as part of a U.S. strategy to engineer a "soft revolution" akin to the Orange Revolution that toppled an authoritarian government in Ukraine 2
The arrests are taking place amid a broader, domestic crackdown aimed at, among others, women deemed to be wearing insufficient head coverings, opposition student groups, and labor unions. Says a State Department official: "They're beating, harassing, and torturing activists who are just Iranian—not Iranian-Americans."
Engaging. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in an interview with the Associated Press, indicated that the arrests of the Americans would not derail a recent decision to engage Iranian officials on the issue of stabilizing Iraq or change the U.S. position of seeking multilateral talks with Iran over its nuclear program, if it first suspends producing nuclear fuel. Rice's stances did not sit well with Iran watchers who advocate elevating human-rights concerns in the pantheon of U.S.-Iranian issues. The Bush administration has asked two unnamed countries that have diplomatic relations with Tehran to urge the Iranians to free the Americans. The efforts of those two come in addition to those of Switzerland, whose embassy in Tehran represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Some analysts are concerned that the Americans are being held to create bargaining chips for five Iranian officials captured by the U.S. military in Iraq. Another theory is that hard-line officials in Iran's security agencies, mindful of the heavy U.S. naval presence in the Persian Gulf and U.S. efforts to target alleged Iranian supply networks for Iraqi militias, are responding with their own pressure tactics. Washington's squeeze on Tehran also includes a new round of lobbying at the U.N. Security Council for further sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program.
A third line of speculation on the Iranian arrests is that the detainees are caught up in a struggle for influence between Iranian hard-liners and moderates who favor direct talks with the United States. Says the State Department official, "The United States has always been the third rail of Iranian politics since the revolution."
This story appears in the June 25, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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