Breaking News: British Sailors Freed
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that the 15 British sailors and Marines captured by Iran on March 23 would be released. Iran had alleged that the UK seafarers had been in Iranian waters, which Britain denies.
The decision to keep the British naval personnel for a couple of weeks and this decision to release them were made by Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei, not by Ahmadinejad, who appears to have been relatively muzzled by his superiors during the crisis itself.
I argued in Salon that the episode was used by Khamenei to whip up nationalist fervor and more public support in Iran for his unpopular regime.
These sorts of incidents are always to some extent about face, and apparently the Iranians felt that when Britain agreed to enter into direct bilateral negotiations, Iran had gained enough face to be magnanimous. Ahmadinejad specifically condemned the earlier British multilateral approach of arranging for a UN Security Council condemnation of Iran (in which Tehran lost face).
The speed with which British diplomacy secured the release of these sailors and Marines proves for the thousandth time that the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, which called for military reprisals against Iran instead, is delusional in its warmongering. What is *wrong* with those people?
Labels: Iran
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/04/2007 05:20:00 AM
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"What is 'wrong' with those people" is that they don't care. Sailors and soldiers are pawns in a metaphorical game of chess. Unfortunately for those pawns the war in Iraq is more and more likely to spread into Iran every day it continues. After all, what's the point of projecting power in Iraq if countries like Iran don't get the message? Pundits are getting us used to the idea of expanding the war now, just in case. I also think it's important to note that the war in Iraq has been very profitable for everyone except for the "pawns" and of course the Iraqi's. When the next terrorist attack comes there will be enouph public support for another profitable war and whichever political part is in control will have to repay their campaign donors by destroying Iran. Insanity has a logic of it's own.
Sadly, this whole incident has been a victory for Iran, one made possible by the US eliminating its enemies to the East and West and the high price of Oil.
Iran flexes its muscles and the world abides. Another gift of the Bush legacy.
Interesting post on Iran. I thought you'd be interested in our new Public Agenda release. When it comes to foreign affairs, public anxiety is rising. While the war is definitely a driving force, the public's uneasiness spills over into the entire range of challenges facing the United States. Overwhelmingly, the public embraces diplomatic measures, with 44% of those surveyed favoring diplomacy with Iran and an addition 28% backing economic sanctions. Favor for military action is in the single digits. Our anxiety indicator is currently at 137 on a 200-point scale, edging toward the 150 point mark that we would consider a crisis of confidence in government policy. Go to http://www.publicagenda.org/foreignpolicy/index.cfm to check out the fourth edition of our “Foreign Policy Index.”
AP : yesterday, 03-April Sudden release of Iranian diplomat raises hope for end to British standoff : “...suggests the standoff over the captive Britons may end with a de facto prisoner swap — something both Tehran and London have publicly discounted.
Diplomat Jalal Sharafi arrived in Tehran on Tuesday, hours after he was freed by his captors in Iraq, officials said. He was seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shiite-controlled district of Baghdad...
...Sharafi was a Second Secretary at the Iranian embassy involved in plans to open a branch of the Iranian National Bank...
...Sharafi was abducted a month after the U.S. military arrested five other Iranians in northern Iraq. One of those captives was described by the U.S. as a senior officer of the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
[An] Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said his government was also working "intensively" for the release of those five other Iranians to "help in the release of the British sailors and marines."”
The release of the 15 British servicemen is also a defeat for the policy of Tony Blair, and a victory for the diplomacy of the British Foreign Office. Blair wanted to go the United Nations route, big fanfare. It was the professional diplomats who succeeded.
SO far as world politics is concern, instead of Wall Street Journal, it should be called The Wrong Street Journal.
Bush and Cheney, naturally, each issued public statements on the release. The sense of disappointment was palpable especially in Cheney's remarks to the effect that Iran was an outlaw regime, unworthy of trust; the marines were clearly in Iraqi waters (a lie), etc.etc..blah blah.
The release should not be viewed apart from the overall political situation in the region - the ISG report; Russian removal of workers from an Iranian reactor site; the surge; Pelosi's visit to Syria; the release of an Iranian hostage in Iraq; Iraq's pressuring the US to let Iran visit its hostages; the statements of the Saudis that the US was an occupying, not liberating power and Talabani's second; the recent announcement from the UAE that it would bar US overflights of Iran; Olmert's backdoor feelers to Syria...
The Iranians may well and wisely have judged that they'd gain more from raprochement with Britain than confrontation...
Hello Juan,
ONLY British diplomacy? What about the announcement by the US that Iran will be given access to the five Iranians seized in Iraq? Surely that cannot be entirely unrelated?
(Otherwise I agree: diplomacy decides who's right - war only decides who's left.)
Hi professor Cole I hope all is well
After reading your article on Salon and your comments today on the IC, I realize that you tried not to mention that Iran’s policy correctly was to expose the double standards imposed by UNSC on “ South countries vs. North countries” as Iran earlier mentioned illegal resolutions which this incident masterfully just did that, and the evidenced is various articles published by western press in last few days on this subject. Iran was not after hearths and minds in the west Iran is correctly positioning itself to win hearths and minds in Muslim world that is why Ahmadinijad was exposing the UNSC unjust resolutions in his news conference today and saying see the treatment of their Prisoners by us vs. our Prisoners by them in Iraq and Guantanamo (it is Hostage taking when a westerner is arrested and if is the Iranians in Arbil then the well kept prisoners or rendition guys without even showing if he is alive on TV). I think that worked brilliantly in the 3rd world and even in some parts of the west. Besides Iran proved it will not bend no matter how much west shouts and use threat even from UNSC which Iran has declared irrelevant just 4 years after US and UK did the same. I can tell you this works for the internal audience as well. I do not think Iranians at this stage are ready to give up what they think is their national right for prestige in the west they will try to earn it by showing we are more civilized then them this was the message from today’s show in Tehran . Clearly this was and advantage gained cheap.
I heard this evening on THom Hartman's Air America program that there is a report in the Times of London that 21 people who were abducted were found tied up and murdered, dumped in Baghdad and that they were workers in the Shia market that was the location of the recreational stroll of McCain and Lindsay (5 rugs for 5 bucks)Graham. These pictures we saw here on TV and net were also seen in Iraq. Have you heard anything about this? If this is true,This is what they have wrought for a craven photo op. Do they ever consider such consequences of their war-gazm? God help us.
The link to that article in the London Times about market worker killings is:
http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1604931.ece
No doubt "What's wrong with these people?" is a rhetorical question. They love war. The money to be made is real but tangential. They love war. After all, they don't fight it; they just watch it on Fox News.
It's really a drug problem anyway, familiar to all of us i nourselves when we look forward to fighting and beating somebody. The adrenaline rush of conflict is a drug high. As with individuals, so with nations. Druggies all over find that the rush allays anxiety, self-contempt, guilt, and a whole lot of other unpleasant feelings, and they're willing to pay a lot for their drugs.
And war is such a drug. They're not stupid or irrational. They're addicts.
Professor Cole, will you please take the time to tell me why I am supposed to hate Iran enough to destroy it?
I know its part of the axis of evil, but what has it done to earn this accolade? I read the papers fairly regularly but I've yet see an article describing really bad deeds done by that country.
Maybe if I knew more facts I could bring myself to support giving Iran a dose of shock and awe, but as of now I just can't do it.
Help.
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