A European diplomat ruefully observed to us that a letter by Senate Republicans to Iran’s leadership would provide the country’s foreign minister with a convenient talking point when negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program resume on Monday. Mohammad Javad Zarif will probably protest that his efforts to persuade hard-liners in Tehran to accept a compromise accord have been undercut by the GOP’s letter, which pointed out that the deal would not be binding on Congress or the next president.
A European diplomat ruefully observed to us that a letter by Senate Republicans to Iran’s leadership would provide the country’s foreign minister with a convenient talking point when negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program resume on Monday. Mohammad Javad Zarif will probably protest that his efforts to persuade hard-liners in Tehran to accept a compromise accord have been undercut by the GOP’s letter, which pointed out that the deal would not be binding on Congress or the next president.
The letter was ill-advised, but it seems unlikely that it will have much influence on Iran’s decision on the pact, which will be made by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, though it could help the regime deflect international blame if he casts a veto. In the meantime, Secretary of State John Kerry should have a ready response to Zarif: the case of Post correspondent Jason Rezaian.
As of Friday, Rezaian had been unjustly held in Tehran’s Evin Prison for 234 days, even though Zarif himself has called him “a good reporter” and expressed the “hope he will be cleared.” His mistreatment has been far more provocative than anything said by congressional Republicans, and Zarif’s apparent inability to put a stop to the abuse gives him little standing to complain about the failure of the Obama administration to stifle its opposition.
Rezaian, who was born in California 39 years ago on Sunday, went to Iran in 2008 with the hope of bridging the gap between it and the United States by reporting on the diversity and complexities in the society beyond Khamenei’s dogmatic regime. His reward was to be singled out for persecution by a security apparatus that has yet to make public the charges against him or allow him to consult with his lawyer, in violation of Iran’s own laws.
Zarif said in September, some weeks after Rezaian’s July 22 arrest, that he “had hoped all along that his detention would be short.” Instead Rezaian has now been imprisoned twice as long as any other Western reporter detained in Iran. His case has been referred to a Revolutionary Court judge,notorious for imposing harsh sentences in political cases, who has been sanctioned by the European Union for “gross human rights violations.”
Experts on Iran say the long delay in bringing Rezaian to trial probably reflects the fact that prosecutors have no plausible case against him and are struggling to concoct something. But holding onto the journalist also is a macabre demonstration that Zarif and his purportedly “moderate” allies in the government of Hassan Rouhani are unable to control the actions of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its allies in the judiciary.
If Zarif indeed complains Monday about President Barack Obama’s inability to control his “hard-liners,” Kerry ought to ask him why Rezaian remains imprisoned.
— Washington Post