Turn Down Volume on Iran

Iran’s reformers are fighting a difficult seesaw battle to loosen the grip of conservative clerics who hold the real power in the country. The best, if most difficult, course for the United States is to quietly wish the reformers well, not to proclaim public support that makes their foes label them lackeys of Washington.

Last month, President Bush issued a statement denouncing Iranian hard-liners who arrested political opponents and brought hardship to their citizens. He also said reformers had no better ally than Washington.

Those remarks predictably prompted the hard-liners to accuse those wanting more liberalization of being pawns of the United States. Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who has been at odds with conservative mullahs during his reign, felt compelled to criticize Washington.

Today’s Iran is not the nation of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his revolutionaries. Most Iranians have been born since Khomeini ousted the shah in 1979. The nation is more democratic than most in the Middle East, holding meaningful elections for parliament and local legislators. But the clerics control the military and security agencies, ensuring that reformers don’t go too far. Just before Bush’s statement, the largest student protest in three years generated clashes with security forces in Tehran. Iranian media reported that 140 people were arrested.

The Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri, the Friday prayer leader in the Iranian city of Esfahan, resigned recently with a withering attack on “bribery, cheating ... the incompetence of authorities and the failure of the political structure.” His complaints resonated with Iranians alarmed by a miserable economy and wanting more liberalization.

There is much to criticize about Iran, which backs Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. But cheering reformers, and inadvertently pushing them toward the conservatives, won’t stop the nation from supporting Israel’s enemies.

It’s better to urge Iran to work with other nations, as it did in providing assistance to Afghanistan, and to warn that Washington will not lift sanctions so long as Tehran supports terror.

Washington also should keep pressure on Russia not to expand its nuclear cooperation with Iran. Moscow has been helping complete a reactor in the Iranian city of Bushehr and recently announced, then seemed to back away from, plans to build five more reactors in Iran.

The clerics’ grip on Iran has visible cracks. Not all opponents of the clerics are jailed or muzzled. Young men and women meet and talk more freely than in Khomeini’s day.

The best course for outsiders is to dial down the volume on complaints about the mullahs’ rule and hold their fire for times when Iran becomes a threat to its neighbors.