Do Not Miss the Cues

The media has once again proven capable of amplifying the United Nations anti-racism contretemps as well as the plight of yet another privileged dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran to echo a fresh confirmation of the old accusations. Just as the real possibility of a U.S.-Iran rapprochement began to transcend the nuclear issue and seem no longer a mere fantasy with Washington’s change of atmosphere and Tehran’s continuous pragmatism, the opposing forces to dialogue in Washington and beyond have now found new grounds in Roxana Saberi’s arbitrary imprisonment and President Ahmadinejad’s repeated accusation of Israel of racism. How to resist these negative cues in favor of abundantly positive ones is a diplomatic test of both parties’ good faith for a genuine and meaningful negotiation—a difficult test indeed.

Ms. Saberi’s plain disregard of multiple warnings to cease reporting after her press credentials were revoked in 2006 provides ample material for a fair process of appeal but does not make the Revolutionary Court’s summary trial and its eight-year imprisonment sentence any less disturbing. Likewise, the media’s hype and portrayal of her as a pure beauty pageant queen to be rescued by the West from the dragon’s mouth just shortly after the silent death of a 29-year-old blogger in prison, Omidreza Mirsayafi, and the White House’s and Secretary of State’s parental support of her case surely take away from the public’s sympathy towards Saberi but are irrelevant to her irrevocable right to a fair trial.

As most analysts agree, Saberi and another Iranian-American arrested last year, Esha Momeni, are to be used as leverage in any future U.S.-Iran negotiations, possibly to demand the release of two Iranian nationals taken by U.S. forces in Irbil in 2007. Alternatively, Saberi may be a victim of Iran’s judiciary hardliner’s backlash against the clear signals of an increasingly positive attitude toward a US-Iran rapprochement among various power factions in Tehran.

What to take away from the Saberi trial now is up to the Obama administration. It could follow the drums of the anti-dialogue voices and use Saberi’s case to once again balk at pursuing negotiation, or it could give credit—for whatever it’s worth—to Ahmadinejad’s public defense of Saberi’s right to appeal and view that, as a signal, Tehran is not willing to lose the diplomatic progress of the past season after Obama’s inauguration. The stakes are too high to mistake the right signals at this point.

But just as Iran’s supreme leader, in reaction to Obama’s Nowruz message, asked, “I would like to say that I do not know who makes decisions for America, the president, the Congress, behind-the-scene elements?”, Washington may be understandably confused after Ahmadinejad’s mixed message in Geneva. However, a more crucial question to ask is how relevant Ahmadinejad’s anti-Zionist comments are to a U.S.-Iran negotiation. For the record, Ahmadinejad’s voice, as presented in the statement, only repeats Durban’s 2001 acrimony over Zionism and racism—no originality scored here. Ahmadinejad’s entirely unnecessary dwelling on the question was as far from the good, old art of diplomacy as the walkouts and boycotts of the conference altogether.

Again, the U.S. administration has a choice to make: It could watch undecidedly as President Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric is blown out of proportion to picture Zionism as a central question of any U.S.-Iran relationship, or it could take stock of the recent welcoming signals by factions previously hostile to the very name of America to persist in pursuing dialogue in good faith. The Palestinian question, central to any conceivable peace in the Middle East, is not central to the beginning of U.S.-Iran negotiations. If a complex and dynamic nation, which cannot be naively summed up in Shi’a martyrdom or epic nationalism, has reached a level of post-revolutionary maturity to prioritize its interests, why should not America heed the right cues when the time seems to be just right?


Hengameh Saberi is an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School. The author has no relation to Ms. Saberi.