POLITICS: Iran Defiant As Sanctions Loom

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Saloumeh Peyman

TEHRAN , Sep 20 2005 (IPS) - While moves are afoot to bring United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions to bear on Iran for intransigence on its atomic programme, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is turning into a national hero and a symbol of defiance against the West.

Much of the adulation for ‘Engineer Chamran’, as the president is popularly known, was on display when he returned to a hero’s welcome in Tehran on the weekend, after proclaiming Iran’s ”inalienable right” to produce nuclear fuel at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

Germany, France and Britain, known as the EU-3, began drafting a resolution to get the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer the intransigence to the UNSC immediately after Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UNGA on Saturday.

Hundreds of Iranian men, families in tow and the women doffing their veils in a departure from Islamic tradition, joined in welcoming Ahmadinejad, wearing the humble, religious ‘man-on-the-street’ attitude that, unexpectedly for the West, won him a landslide victory against wealthy reformists in the presidential elections in June.

Many older generation Iranians said the welcome accorded to Ahmadinejad reminded them of a time, 60 years ago, when another popular leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, returned home after successfully defending Iran’s national rights to its oil at the Hague, against British oil companies and colluding Iranian elite.

On Monday, Ahmadinejad declared to his people over state television that Iran was not worried about any reference by the IAEA to the UNSC. ”They do what they have to do and we do what we have to do-our position will remain unchanged,” he declared.

”The people of Iran will insist on their rights and nothing is going to happen to them,” he added reassuringly.

A retired engineer, Hasan Daqiqi, told IPS: ”Ahmadinejad is not doing anything special – only what every single Iranian patriot would do”.

”Do not ask my name , I am one of the millions of Iranian Muslim, secular, nationalists from different walks of society, and President Ahmadinejad has just lifted our spirits- we are proud of him,” said another old man with a luxuriant white beard.

The homecoming celebrations continued through the weekend and merged into Sunday’s commemoration of the birth of Mohammed Al Mahdi, the 12th and last Shiite Imam providing an opportunity to give the right spiritual touch to the political proceedings.

On the other hand, the Iranian government is bracing for tough times days ahead, though supporters of the ruling establishment and even some secular nationalists believe that it is worth paying the price to defend the nation’s right to have access to peaceful nuclear energy.

At a press conference here on Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, recommended that the IAEA refrain from taking a radical approach. ”Europeans and the IAEA should look into Iran’s nuclear case with logic and avoid language of threat and pressure which will bear no fruit”.

”Our advice to the agency (IAEA) is to review Iran’s case tomorrow, logically and realistically, to avoid making the case more complicated,” Asefi said at the conference.

Asefi also projected Iran’s defiant mood by saying that Iran would not hesitate to begin uranium enrichment (another step towards making atomic bombs) if it found the IAEA’s course of action wanting from its point of view.

Interpretations of Asefi’s press conference in Monday’s Farsi language press were optimistic.

The ‘Aftabyazd’ daily highlighted Asefi’s statement: ”Sending Iran’s dossier to the UNSC does not imply military assault on Iran,” the paper said in a headline.

But, the fact that Iran could be banking heavily on support from Asian and African countries as well as China and Russia in the UNSC, if it came to that, was evident through comments in the press, which is closely monitored by the government.

In an editorial in the ‘Sharq’ daily on Monday, Farzaneh Roostaee said: ”The dispute on how to cope with Iran’s nuclear case may extend to the next 2006 UNGA as the U.S. has failed to woo Indian support against Iran”.

India and other non-Western nuclear countries, such as Russia, China and South Africa, are chary of backing a reference to the UNSC of Iran’s nuclear programme by the IAEA that has been meeting in Vienna since Monday to decide the issue.

But a decision on the issue could take as long as a week as the 35-nation IAEA, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, thrashes out the reference issue behind closed doors, which could eventually lead to punitive sanctions against Iran.

The weekend celebrations focused on the religious tone of Ahmadinejad’s U.N. speeches and many said it would help the president mobilise the support that may be needed in the coming days in the event of international sanctions or a confrontation with the U.S.

At the celebrations, which included the singing of Shiite lyrics praising the 12 ‘ immaculate imams’, one panegyrist intoned: ”Ahmadinejad is the only Shiite president to mention the holy name of the 12th Imam Mahdi from the U.N. podium. He, the President, has shaken the heart of America in the heart of America( U.N. headquarters)”.

The 12th Mohammed Al Mahdi, a direct descendent of Prophet Mohammed, disappeared mysteriously 12 centuries ago but Shiites believe he will return before the ‘day of judgement’.

”Ahmadinejad has demonstrated to the world that Iran is powerful, a seeker of peace and a reformist,” the panegyrist sang and called for ”more voices from Africa and Asia in the UNSC so that justice may prevail”.