Ahmadinejad's coup d'etat
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THERE MAY never be absolute proof of the massive vote fraud that Iranians are now protesting. But it would require vast reservoirs of credulity to believe the announced result: that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won nearly 63 percent of first-round ballots cast. Disenchanted Iranians fleeing violent militiamen known as the basij have been shouting out their verdict on the phony vote count. They are calling it a coup d'etat.
The same disdain for fair play that went into the hard-liners' vote fraud also makes it highly unlikely that the Guardian Council, which has been asked to review the process, might annul the declared result. Ahmadinejad backers in the interior ministry (which has responsibility for overseeing the election) would hardly have announced their unbelievable results so swiftly - well before all the ballots could be counted - if they had not been assured that the fix was in at the highest levels of Iran's power elite.
This mockery of democracy creates a quandary for President Obama. He has invited Iran's rulers, whoever they may be, to enter into a dialogue. The topics could include security for their regime and Iran's role as a regional power. In return, the United States would ask to stop Iran short of achieving a nuclear weapons capability. Ideally, there would also be limits on Iran's involvement in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian areas, and the Arab Gulf states.
With this invitation, Obama has entered into a high-stakes game of geopolitical poker. It is Iran's pursuit of fissile material needed for nuclear weapons that makes the stakes so high. Because of that, Obama has little choice but to keep his offer to negotiate with Iran on the table no matter who is declared the winner of the election there.
In succinct terms, Vice President Joe Biden stated the administration's realist position Sunday, saying, "Our interests are the same before the election as after the election, and that is: We want them to cease and desist from seeking a nuclear weapon and having one in its possession, and secondly to stop supporting terror." The hard part of this stance is that it leaves the people of Iran to their own devices. They have been railing against dictatorship from their rooftops. They voted against Ahmadinejad, among other reasons, because they want an end to hostile relations with America and much of the outside world.
Obama is doing what is right for American interests. If his overture to Iran leads to fruitful negotiations, the people of Iran will stand to benefit. And we hope their current resistance to unaccountable power may help bend the regime toward an accommodation with the rest of the world.
