Iran Democracy Monitor: No. 95

WALKING BACK THE DOG ON DEMOCRACY PROMOTION
Since taking office in January, the Obama administration has committed itself wholeheartedly to a reconception of U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic. That approach, however, does not appear to include promoting democracy in Iran. The latest sign is news that the new Administration has denied federal funding to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), a New Haven, Connecticut-based non-governmental organization that tracks instances of assassinations and torture on the part of the Iranian regime. The news comes as a major blow to the IHRDC, which has received some $3 million in governmental funding for its work in recent years. Without the money, IHRDC officials say, the organization will be forced to shut its doors this coming spring.

The IHRDC decision, observers say, is part of a systematic downgrading of the issue of democracy in Iran on the part of the White House. "To pursue engagement, President Obama needs his Iranian interlocutors to be durable leaders, not frauds on the brink. Iranian dissidents challenging the regime's legitimacy are thus being treated as obstacles to statecraft," write David Feith and Bari Weiss in the Wall Street Journal. The resulting rollback of support for groups such as the IHRDC, Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, Feith and Weiss contend, puts the White House on the wrong side of the democracy debate raging in Iran since the June 12th presidential election. "The Obama team has long called itself pragmatic, open to altering its policies as realities shift," they write. "But its approach to Iran has remained unchanged since Mr. Obama was a presidential candidate, despite the Green Revolution." (Boston Globe, October 6, 2009; Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2009)

IRAN FINDS OPPORTUNITY WITHIN ADVERSITY
Are Iran and its sometime regional rival Pakistan mending fences? The two countries are reportedly poised to sign a comprehensive security agreement in the wake of a recent terrorist bombing targeting Iran's feared clerical army, the Pasdaran. The suicide attack, which has been attributed to the Sunni separatist group Jundullah, took place on October 18th in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, near Pakistan, setting off a flurry of diplomatic activity between Tehran and Islamabad. The result is a tentative deal, set to be signed in the near future, covering cooperation on border security, narcotics, human trafficking and intelligence sharing. (Tehran Fars, October 25, 2009)

A NEW MONOPOLY FOR THE PASDARAN
The Pasdaran's grip on the Iranian economy just got a little bit tighter. Iran's Revolutionary Guards have reportedly acquired a 51 percent stake in Iran's state telecommunications firm, Tose'e Etemad Mobin. The takeover, worth an estimated $8.3 billion, makes Iran's clerical army - already an economic juggernaut - the predominant player in the country's telecom sector, a position that regime authorities are likely to leverage to keep closer tabs on regime opposition through text message and cell phone tracking. (London Guardian, October 7, 2009)

SCRAMBLING TO THWART GASOLINE SANCTIONS
Recent activity in Washington - including the House Foreign Affairs Committee's mark-up of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act (IRPSA) - has left the Islamic Republic scrambling to reduce its current, deep dependence on foreign refined petroleum. The Iranian government has announced an urgent plan to ramp up domestic gasoline production capabilities. The initiative appears to focus on creating a near term production surge capability that would allow Iran to generate considerable quantities of gasoline at home in the event that an embargo on its gasoline imports by the West becomes a reality. (Tehran Fars, October 24, 2009)