Iran Spurns U.S. Offers of Dialogue

Secretary of State Madeline Albright recently announced that the United States would allow Iran to export caviar, carpets, dried fruits and pistachios to the United States. After making these concrete concessions to Tehran, she requested that the Islamic Republic enter into talks with the United States.

But just moments before Albright’s address, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Hadi Nejed Hosseinian, spoke from the same podium. He made no similar concessions to the U.S. In fact, he said dialogue will be beneficial only “when it is carried out under a normalized situation devoid of pressure, sanctions, allegations and grandstanding” and that premature talks may lead to “inadvertent consequences.”

However one reads his comments, it is clear we have given Iran a freebie. Our move was completely unilateral. Iran hasn’t even agreed to begin negotiations.

Our move to allow certain Iranian exports is not inconsequential. It has symbolic value beyond its economic impact. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the U.S. has progressively tightened restrictions on business with Tehran.

The U.S. has expended significant diplomatic capital, especially early in the Clinton Administration, to convince our allies to minimize their business dealings with Iran. Our efforts to convince the Europeans or the Japanese to not sell advanced “dual use” technology that could be a significant benefit to Iran’s military, for example, are seriously weakened by this opening. Likewise, it completely undermines efforts to prevent Japanese and European investments in Iranian energy projects, investments Iran desperately needs.

Carpets, pistachios, and caviar are not trivial to the Iranian economy. They represent Iran’s major non-energy exports. Iran’s carpet industry alone provides jobs for an estimated 5 million people.

Iran has no trouble selling all of its oil production at today’s high world price to an energy-thirsty world. If we were to import Iranian oil, Iran would not benefit. In contrast, our recent action assures new markets and higher prices for Iran’s most important non-energy exports.

While Iranians’ desire for reform is heartening, their government’s actions have not reflected it in its foreign and domestic policies. Topping the list are Iran’s support for terrorism, its nuclear ambitions and its deplorable human rights situation.

This past week in Vienna, Iran has led the OPEC faction fighting to minimize and delay increases in oil production. Every time you pay $1.75 or even $2 a gallon for gas, you can be reminded that Iran has given us nothing in return for our opening of markets to its major non-energy exports.

Despite the election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami more than two years ago and again in January, Iran’s behavior has not changed significantly. Iran continues to provide support to radical organizations opposed to the Arab-Israeli peace process, including Hamas.

Tehran has repeatedly tried to purchase technology that has no other purpose than to assist in production of nuclear weapons. While it is impossible to tell when Iran will acquire the bomb, its efforts at making weapons are one of the most pressing national security concerns facing the U.S.

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Iran is also making substantial progress in its missile program. CIA Director George Tenet testified in Congress last February that Iran will probably have a missile capable of reaching the U.S. within the next few years, and will soon become a supplier of missile technology to other hostile states. By obtaining Japanese and European investment and technology for the expansion of its energy sector, and by marketing its non-energy exports, Iran will be able to finance its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and its support for terrorist organizations.

On the human rights front, I have been involved in Congress on focusing world attention on the plight of 13 Jews arrested a year ago in Shiraz in southern Iran. These 13, including a 16-year-old boy, were held for several months before the regime announced they were accused of spying for the U.S. and Israel, a crime for which they could face the death penalty.

The charges are ridiculous. In Iran, Jews are prohibited from holding any position that would give them access to military secrets--hardly folks the CIA would recruit to be spies. Since the 1979 revolution, 17 Jews have been executed on fabricated charges.

Iran has been condemned by the U.N. for its human rights record, one of the few member countries to receive such a rebuke. Albright identified the case of the 13 Jews in Shiraz “as one of the barometers of U.S.-Iran relations” in her address. I could not agree more. This case will demonstrate if Khatami and the “moderates” in Iran can and will deliver. Will innocents be killed or given harsh sentences because of their religious affiliation, or will minorities’ rights be respected? Will Iran join the ranks of civilized nations or will it remain on the fringes of the world community?

I support negotiations with Iran and would support mutual concessions. But negotiations are unlikely to be successful if we make major, concrete economic concessions--and thereby invite our allies to do business as usual--all in return for the hope that someday Iran will come to the table.