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Why Economic Carrots Won't Appease Iran

(Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) Amir Taheri - There is no way that anyone can help the Iranian people return to normalcy as long as the present regime is in place in Tehran. A people that finds itself in the hands of a brutal authoritarian regime that claims a divine mandate and is ready to do whatever it takes to remain in power is beyond help by any outsider with the best of intentions. If you help the Islamic Republic improve its economy, the bulk of the proceeds will go to strengthening the apparatus of repression, with the people receiving mere crumbs to keep their mouths shut. At the same time, regime propaganda will spread the tale that it was thanks to its "revolutionary ardor" that the evil foreigners had to offer concessions, as they retreated under the blows of the new rising power of Islam destined to conquer the whole world. Over the past four decades, more than two dozen countries have tried to sweeten the Tehran mullahs with all manner of carrots. Germany gave the Islamic Republic a most-favored-nation status. France offered exceptional trade guarantees. The U.S. apologized for unknown and non-existent "wrongs" it was supposed to have done. It is interesting that President Joe Biden still thinks he can normalize the quintessentially abnormal. The writer was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.
2022-08-01 00:00:00
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