It's the Democracy, Stupid

Melanie Phillips's Diary:

A vitally important message was delivered in London yesterday by Dr. Ali Fatemi, a key player in the referendum movement now underway in Iran to overturn the theocratic despotism which runs the country. Dr. Fatemi is editor of iranvajahan.net, a site for in-depth analysis and commentary on Iran, and a professor of economics at the Business School at the American University in Paris.

In his view, Britain and Europe are missing the big story about Iran. The free world is (rightly) very concerned about Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, its sponsorship of terrorism and the part it is playing in the Arab/Islamist war against Israel. But what the world should realise is that the one and only thing which is a precondition for the eradication of those three evils is the overthrow of the terrorist regime that runs the country and its replacement by democracy.

The good news, says Dr Fatemi, is that the country is demanding just such a regime change. READ MORE

Students have issued a declaration from jail demanding a liberal democracy and the rule of law; they want a separation between mosque and state, adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the emancipation of women and other similar good things. More and more Iranians are saying this kind of thing openly, which is an extraordinary development given the terror under which they live. The weakness of the regime is palpable. But it will not yield unless the world puts pressure on it to do so. And yet, shamefully and stupidly, the world is ignoring these courageous souls who are pressing for an end to the tyranny that governs their own lives and threatens the rest of the world.

The free world does not have to invade Iran to effect regime change, says Dr Fatemi. All that needs to happen is for it to openly support and encourage the Iranian dissidents, and to tell the mullahs that unless Iran reforms itself it will be excluded from the community of nations, with trade sanctions and exclusion from international organisations. If in addition they were made an offer they couldn’t refuse of safe passage to a country of their choice, he says they would take it.

The alternative to this velvet revolution, he says, is a violent overthrow of the regime which, apart from the immediate carnage would probably in the short term throw up another despotism. In the long term, he says, the Iranians will have their democracy; the forces of reform are now simply too overwhelming and unstoppable. One way or another, they will eventually overthrow the theocracy and institute a free society. The only question is whether this will be achieved peacefully or bloodily. And that is a choice for which the free world bears a considerable responsibility.