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The Washington
Times
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Nir Boms and Reza Bulorchi
 Following two decades of Tehran's lies and three years of international wishful
thinking, Iran's
nuclear case was finally brought to the hands of the U.N. Security Council. In
the meantime the mullahcracy in Tehran has been gearing itself for another
phase of international standoff.
On the same day Tehran declared "the
Russian proposal is no longer on our agenda." the Sunday Telegraph
reported that Iran has
built a secret underground emergency command center in north Tehran as "they prepare for a
confrontation with the West over their illicit nuclear program."
Hojatol-Islam Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of the ultraconservative Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, was reported in
February to have approved the use of atomic weapons against the "enemies
of Islam." Meanwhile, the theocratic regime's shrinking loyal base is
mobilized for staged rallies in front of European embassies and nuclear
facilities to give an appearance of national legitimacy.
The mullahs' nuclear drive has no doubt enraged Iranians -- but for reasons
far different from what the mullahs may admit.
For years, the mullahs have proven to be the biggest enemy of Iranians. The
regime carried out summary executions of thousands of political prisoners in
what is known as the 1988 massacre that followed a fatwa by Ayatollah
Khomeini. Even pregnant prisoners were not spared. Last year, Mohammad Abbaspour, a member of the social committee of Iranian
parliament, said "Today 90 percent of people are under the poverty
line". The foreign debt has reached almost 30 percent of Iran's GDP. Thousands
of Iranians have sold their kidneys to make the ends meet. Some families have
even traded their young daughters to human traffickers. Iran's massive flux of rising oil income has
only helped to finance a gigantic multi-faceted WMD program and a growing
infrastructure of terror around the Middle East.
Indeed, the vast majority of Iranians are opposed to the theocratic regime's
drive that has pushed their country to the verge of a military confrontation.
An internal classified report prepared by a state-run polling center has reportedly
concluded that only 31 percent of Iranians consider the nuclear program a
"national' project. The report adds that 86 percent of Iranians believe
the nuclear energy is not worth entering a war.
More importantly, however, Iranians have paid the highest price to derail the
mullahs' nuclear weapons program. While satellite imagery and inspections by
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) contributed to getting a sense
of the extent of Iran's
nuclear drive, it was the Iranian opposition that played the key role in
exposing the mullahs' nuclear secrets. The National Council of Resistance of
Iran, the major opposition coalition, revealed in August 2002 that Tehran was building two new secret nuclear facilities in
the cities of Arak
and Natanz. In February 2003, Iran admitted to the existence of two sites, a
development that set in motion the IAEA resolution to report Iran to the
U.N. Security Council.
It has become increasingly difficult for the mullahs to cast their atomic
drive as an "Iranian" program while the Iranian opposition is at
the center of the campaign against it. And to hit back at the opposition,
mullahs chose their usual route. Several days before the IAEA meeting, prison
officials announced that if the nuclear case were ever referred to the
Security Council, they would unleash their wrath on political prisoners.
And that threat became a chilling reality just a day after the IAEA vote. Hojjat Zamani, 31, a political
prisoner and a member of MEK (an affiliate of the opposition coalition), was
snatched from his cell by prison guards and hanged at dawn on Feb. 7,
according to Amnesty International. More prisoners are feared to be facing a
similar fate.
The Zamini case shows that Iran's drive
for nuclear weapons is the flip side of its campaign of suppression at home. This
year alone, more than 30 individuals have been executed -- many in public --
or sentenced to death. The daring strike of Tehran transit workers was brutally
crushed, as was the peaceful but defiant stand of several thousands Sufi
Muslims last week. Meanwhile, Elham Afroten, a 20-year-old female journalist, is reported
incarcerated since Jan. 23 and badly mistreated for allegedly placing a
satirical article comparing Ayatollah Khomeini to the AIDS virus.
Iran's
theocracy will do anything to instill fear; which is why it will do
everything to get the nukes. And when it succeeds, one can easily imagine
what would a regime that cares so little about its own citizens may do to the
citizens of the "infidel" world. For the sake of the world and for
the sake of the Iranian people -- the mullahs must not be given that nuclear
choice.
Nir Boms is the
vice president of the Center for Freedom in the Middle
East. Reza Bulorchi is the executive
director of the U.S. Alliance for Democratic Iran.
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