By Pierre Rousselin
Source: Editorial in French daily, Le Figaro, September 24, 2009
With Iran, the tensions rise. Since the arrest, sham trial and conditional release of Clotilde Reiss, it was clear that the mullahs’ regime would try to impose an unacceptable blackmail on France.
Instead of discretely dealing with this issue, President Ahmadinejad preferred to publicly suggest the release of this young French girl in exchange for that of the murderer of Shapour Bakhtiar, the Shah’s former prime minister. The equivalence established by the two very different cases is an insult to our country. After cheating for his reelection, Ahmadinejad is now using this young French girl to reunite his supporters. He used his UN address for the same goal, and when his representatives will be at the table for nuclear talks with the 5+1 countries in a week, he will pursue the same goal.
Ahmadinejad cannot be the only one to play the strategy of tension while taking advantage of all the forums that are offered to him. To be ready for dialogue does not imply tolerating the unacceptable.
As many Iranians continue to protest against the regime, it is regrettable that the West is involuntarily helping the regime. Certainly, the United Nations could not refuse to hear Ahmadinejad. Holding out a hand to him, listening to him to see if he has any suggestions to solve the nuclear crisis –as Barak Obama has decided to do—is one thing, but granting him extraordinary respect and recognizing a legitimacy for him that he failed to gain and achieve in his own country, is something else.
It would be paradoxical if the policy of opening toward Teheran results in stopping an opposition movement that has shaken the regime at its highest levels.
By refusing the Iranian blackmail on Wednesday evening, Nicolas Sarkozy stood along with “all Iranians who demonstrated to say that the elections were rigged and demonstrated to say that they want freedom.” He added: “we shouldn’t be less courageous than them.”
At the beginning, it could have been acceptable to be more reserved to avoid being accused of meddling in others internal affairs; but now, the time has come to support the protesters publicly and unequivocally. It is highly likely that the regime will not respond to the offers for dialogue until October 1st, and it would become necessary to impose new sanctions against this regime. At that time, the people of Iran should know that the nuclear issue is not our only concern and that we are also concerned about their freedom.