Like any issue contorted into a simplistic election-year dispute engagement with Iran has become a partisan joke. Democrats seize John McCain’s wisecracking parody of the Beach Boys classic “Barbara Ann” to suggest that warmongering Republicans have no answer beyond “bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.”
Republicans caricaturize Obama’s policy as naively throwing away all bargaining chips and politely asking a psychopath not to wipe Israel off the map.
Both party lines ignore the candidates’ own statements and the deadly serious issues surrounding Iran.
But our entertainment-saturated inner devils ask “Where’s the fun in an in-depth and sober analysis?” And our better-intentioned but cynicism-battered inner angels beseech “What middle ground can there be in dealing with the irrational leaders of a chaotic untrustworthy region?”
The heartwarming work and recent anguishing detention of Esha Momeni an Iranian-American graduate student at California State University Northridge and member of the women’s rights organization Change for Equality help answer both the devils and the angels.
Momeni journeyed to Tehran the sprawling Iranian capital to chronicle the quiet bravery of women living under the repressive Islamist regime. With more freedom and individual differences than many Americans assume these women push softly at the edges of society to lessen the significant discrimination they still face.
Their stories are as engaging as the horse race between McCain and Obama – or the latest celebrity gossip – and as deserving of attention.
But the flow of good news stopped when a trumped-up traffic charge landed Momeni in prison despite no indication she participated in subversive or illegal activity.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement when they heard news of the problem and CNN put a story online that day but treatment by the media and the government so far has been slow and scant.
There is little any government could do if it depended on the Swiss or Pakistanis to deliver a message which is how communication between the Washington and Tehran has proceeded for decades.
Perhaps the human face of Esha Momeni will succeed where images of nuclear development and terrorist training camps have failed in driving home the concept that refusing to speak to an enemy hinders any effort to defuse a problem with that enemy.
Sensationalizing the situation would only worsen it so in that sense the government’s apparent inattentiveness is positive. However enraged screaming and timid silence would not be the only options if low-level diplomatic connections had been established.
Diplomatic relations might have allowed a junior American official to offer a minor incentive or withhold a previous minor incentive to remedy Momeni’s situation.
As it stands though there are no minor points of contention to fix between the two embassies. There are no embassies not even an “interest section” with less power than a formal embassy and any agreement must be all or nothing.
Previous presidents have refused to open any dialogue with Iran until it completely halts its nuclear program while Iranians insist on developing the energy source as a point of principle and pragmatism. They argue the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty they and the U.S. signed allows nonmilitary nuclear energy and the country’s infrastructure can’t survive forever even with Iran’s vast oil reserves.
The next president must not by any means permit the Iranians to develop nuclear weapons and should not immediately bless nonmilitary nuclear technology despite support for such a move by the majority of the world. He could only allow a nuclear program if Iran has agreed to safeguards to ensure the technology does not advance into weapons stages which is a difficult requirement.
The United States should however engage the nation on other pressing issues-including women’s rights – and work up from these discussions toward the biggest disagreements.
Momeni wrote before she was captured “The women of this land are peacefully writing a glorious end to the bitter long story of inequality and injustice.” The women worked slowly knowing with each success that significant problems remained but they progressed.
Their successes should inspire the next president to help that cause and others by learning from and improving upon their tactics. It’s not as dramatic as the caricatures of McCain’s or Obama’s policy but it’s the only path to peace.