Vol. 71/No. 8      February 26, 2007

In trying to rationalize the U.S.-led squeeze on Iran, which is causing rifts among its rulers, White House spokesman Tony Snow said February 12 that Tehran had approved the EFPs’ shipment.

These claims, however, seemed to have gone a little too far, even within the Pentagon. While in Jakarta, Indonesia, today, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, contradicted some of these assertions.

“It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it’s clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit,” Pace said.

Tehran said the charges are “unacceptable.” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammed Ali Hosseini, said “such accusations cannot be relied upon or presented as evidence. The United States has a long history in fabricating evidence.”  
 
Divisions among Iranian rulers
At the same time, the U.S.-orchestrated squeeze on Iran, aimed partly at forcing the country to abandon its nuclear energy program, is widening divisions within the ruling circles in Tehran. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is being criticized by some government officials and in the media for his “harsh rhetoric” on the nuclear issue, and for his failure to stanch unemployment and inflation.

A new front in the imperialist-led offensive to prevent Iran from gaining access to nuclear energy may be threats to the very lives of its scientists. On February 2, Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor), a U.S. private intelligence agency, said that Ardeshir Hosseinpour, the Iranian nuclear scientist who died in mid-January, “was in fact a Mossad target,” referring to Israel’s secret police. The British daily The Times reported the same in a February 4 article headlined, “Iranian nuclear scientist ‘assassinated by Mossad.’”

The Stratfor dispatch cynically commented, “Decapitating a hostile nuclear program by taking out key human assets is a tactic that has proven its effectiveness over the years.” It listed Iraqi nuclear scientists who died in “mysterious circumstances” prior to the 1981 Israeli air strike that destroyed Iraq’s Osirak reactor.  
 
‘A piece of torn paper’
Ahmadinejad had dismissed as a “piece of torn paper” the December 23 resolution by the United Nations Security Council imposing sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, a key part in the nuclear fuel cycle. Ever since, Iran’s president has come under more criticism by the opposition “reformers” and by forces directly associated with top state officials.

The conservative daily Jomhouri-Eslami, which reflects the views of Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took exception to Ahmadinejad’s statement. An editorial in its January 18 issue said, “The [Security Council] resolution is certainly harmful for the country,” but it is “too much to call it ‘a piece of torn paper.’” The paper accused Ahmadinejad of using the nuclear issue to distract people from his failed policies. It added that his behavior was diminishing popular support for the country’s nuclear program. And it called on the president to stay out of all nuclear matters.

The liberal daily Kargozaran reported that ever since the Security Council passed its sanctions resolution the number of traders in Iran’s stock market has fallen by 46 percent. According to the paper, a group of influential capitalists met with a senior official of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and called for “moderation” on the nuclear issue.

As if in a rebuttal, Ahmadinejad returned to the matter in a January 21 speech at the Majles, Iran’s parliament. “One of our own dear friends was telling me a few nights ago what is all this mess? We are paying a high price for being nuclear and we are getting damaged.” Ahmadinejad defended his stance, saying that unlike other governments, “We have become nuclear without any commitment to any great powers.”

After the UN Security Council approved sanctions, they “claimed that the Islamic Republic has been isolated, and we had to counter this,” he stated. During a four-day trip to Latin America in January, when he visited Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, Ahmadinejad said he was asked by a reporter why Washington was trying to isolate Iran. “I smiled, and said the U.S. wants to isolate Iran, but Iran has isolated the U.S.,” he said.

Etemad-e-Melli, a daily associated with the liberal bourgeois opposition, commented on the president’s trip by asking sarcastically: “Do you really assume people like Chávez [and] Ortega … can be Iran’s strategic allies?” It added, “We should not build a house on water.”  
 
New extensive privatization drive
Meanwhile, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council, announced January 22 that the regime was embarking on an extensive new privatization drive. Eighty percent of the government’s stake in a range of state-run factories and other major enterprises are to be sold to private capitalists. Energy Minister Parviz Fattah told the press January 27 that at the outset seven power plants will be privatized. The cabinet is reportedly reviewing the sale of 107 state-owned oil companies.

Tehran is apparently seeking greater integration into the world capitalist market to counter its political isolation. Ahmadinejad ended his January 21 speech in Majles by saying: Washington “is telling us that the sanctions won’t allow anyone to invest. But you know that barely a month after they imposed sanctions on us, we are now in the process of finalizing $16 billion of foreign investment.”

On February 3, Ahmadinejad traveled to central Iran and inaugurated a power station near Isfahan. Iranian papers said this is the first such station built by the private sector, with capital from the United Arab Emirates and Germany.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. forces in Iraq to ‘strike relentlessly’
Petraeus takes command of U.S. troops Iraqi gov’t closes borders with Iran, Syria
London uses ‘antiterror’ arrests to undermine democratic rights
Boston event features Iran’s UN ambassador
‘Let the people vote on war’
How workers movement has fought against imperialist war
Washington to establish new Africa Command  
 
 
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