Post LBJ Panel Review: Dr. Ebadi On US-Iranian Relations
Former President Bush had insisted that Iran first halt its nuclear program before talking. President Obama dropped any preconditions. When the two countries eventually sit down to talk, what might be on the agenda? On Thursday night, April 30th, Dr. Shirin Ebadi, a human rights lawyer from Iran and four U.S. Middle Eastern experts discussed President Obama’s prospects for reconciliation. Betty Sue Flowers, Director of the LBJ Library, moderated the panel. To protect Dr. Ebadi, and to encourage the “free exchange of ideas,” no video or audio recording was allowed. Shown (left to right) are the translator, Dr. Ebadi, and Betty Sue Flowers.
Dr. Ebadi identified three sources of conflict: the nuclear program, human rights and foreign policy. She dismissed Iran’s nuclear program as not being a real issue by noting that the other countries in the region, such as India and Pakistan, already have nuclear weapons. “If the U.S. was worried, they would try to halt those programs,” she said. On human rights, an issue that has been raised in the past, she commented, “I don’t think that the U.S. government cares too much what happens to me.” The real conflict, she told the audience, was over foreign policy, specifically Hamas and Hezbollah. The U.S. regards these organizations as terrorists, while Iran regards them as democratically elected governments. That’s a big gap. She stated that “Iran wants to be at the forefront of events in the region.” The U.S. allies in the region, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E, Egypt and Israel, don’t. Leadership means followers. Iran would like to see democratic change not just in Iraq, interestingly a name that never came up, but in other countries in the region. Dr. Ebadi saw the conflict as between governments and not the people. She mentioned the candle light processions in Tehran as a show of support immediately after 9/11.
Summarizing, Dr. Ebadi seemed to suggest that Iran could put pre-conditions on the talks, like the return of the money Iran paid for F-16 jets that were never delivered after the Iranian Revolution. A comment that the U.S. only cares about oil prompted this observation: “We [Iran} would be better off with more water and less oil in the long run.” Perhaps this is one point of agreement. President Obama said on Earth Day, “The choice we face is between prosperity and decline,” he said. “The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy.”
On the panel were Faegheh Shirazi and Denise Spellberg, both professor’s of Middle Eastern Studies at University of Texas, and Kamram Aghaie, associate director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas, and Clement Henry, also a professor of Government at University of Texas.
