Robin Wright fails to mention that the “reformist candidate” for Iranian President, Mir Hossein Mousavi, was the lynchpin at the Iranian end of the Iran-Contra scandal back in 1985-6, and as such has shown himself to be capable of arms-dealing with “the Great Satan” while at the same time publicly slandering them. Such duplicitous behaviour is unlikely to convince many that he really cares about human rights and democracy.

Wright’s support for Mousavi underlines the Iranian claims that the US is busily trying to bring about regime change through military and economic means, as well as propaganda and soft revolution. The propaganda comes from the pen of Wright in the mainstream media, and the subversion comes from organizations like the Wilson Center, a CIA front where Wright works as a “Public Policy Scholar”. The Director of the Wilson Centre’s Middle East desk is Haleh Esfandiari, who was arrested in Iran in 2007 for espionage and released after making a confession video.

Wright knows full well that the US Government isn’t interested in human rights for Iranians either – any more than they care about human rights for Palestinians, Saudi Arabians or Egyptians.

What the US is really interested in is made clear in a paper by Wright and Shaul Bakhash (husband of Esfandiari) in 1997, “The U.S. and Iran: An Offer They Can’t Refuse?” which points out :
Besides, Iran is a country that the United States can no longer afford to ignore. There are simply too many vital interests at stake. Economically, Iran’s gas reserves are second in the world, and its significant oil resources make it a pivotal player in the energy markets. Before the 1979 revolution, the United States was one of the Islamic Republic’s top three trading partners—a relationship that supported thousands of U.S. jobs and $2.7 billion in annual export revenues for America. Up until the early 1990s, the United States was still among the top five purchasers of Iranian oil. Today, Iran represents a potentially important market for American goods and technology, particularly in the oil, aviation, and computer industries, which could again produce billions of dollars of income. Iran also offers some of the most economically viable transit routes for oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia and the Caucasus, now freed from Soviet control.

Iran may object to the American military presence in the Persian Gulf, but it must recognize that the United States has legitimate interests to protect–most notably, safeguarding the flow of oil and enforcing sanctions against Saddam Hussein.

… the U.S. government could lift legal restraints to allow U.S. companies to tranship Iranian oil to Europe, help to develop Iran’s oil and gas facilities, or sell oil-drilling equipment to Iran–projects that generate jobs and income for Americans.

Yes, the real interest in Iran lies with its oil, pipeline routes and markets for US exports, not in human rights. The youth on the streets of Tehran will learn a bitter lesson indeed if the soft revolution ever occurs, just as the color revolutions of Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine were never about human rights or the wishes of the people in the streets.

Dave Kimble
The writer lives in Queensland, Australia, and runs a website called Peak Oil Australia, http://www.peakoil.org.au