Israel-Palestine: Hamas Says (Again) Ready to Negotiate

This analysis is based on a piece by Amjad Atallah in The Washington Note (http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/)

The Wall Street Journal, which is no friend of the cause of Hamas, carried an interview last Friday in which the organisation's political director, Khaled Meshaal, said, "We along with other Palestinian factions in consensus agreed upon accepting a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines. This is the national program. This is our program. This is a position we stand by and respect." Meshaal added that Hamas would commit to an immediate reciprocal cease-fire with Israel and a prisoner exchange.

Meshaal put acceptance of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders within "a broader peace agreement with Israel", including the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and a capital for the Palestinian state in East Jerusalem.

This, however, is also the official position of Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority,
although Palestinian leaders have privately admitted to Israelis that they might give up the right of return in exchange for the 1967 borders.

And Meshaal's interview, which restates the position he set out to The New York Times earlier this summer, is another indication that Hamas supports President Obama's efforts to broker a settlement: "Hamas and other Palestinian groups are ready to cooperate with any American, international or regional effort to find a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, to end the Israeli occupation and to grant the Palestinian people their right of self-determination."

Enduring America's Summer Break

We'll be on limited service until Sunday, as some of us recharge batteries (and reassure loved ones that we have lives away from the Internet) and others move into new houses. Do keep checking in, however: today we've got a morning update from Iran, a special up-to-the-minute analysis of the division between the Supreme Leader and President Ahmadinejad, and a feature on the American detained in Iran, social scientist Kian Tajbakhsh. There's also an article from John Matlin remembering the late, great reporter Walter Cronkite and lamenting the decline of US journalism. Mike Dunn will be minding the shop for your comments and ideas.

Thanks to all of you who, by reading, commenting, and sending ideas, have made Enduring America a success, as we celebrate another record month for pageviews.

The Latest from Iran (4 August): A Day Between Protests

NEW Iran Analysis: The Supreme Leader’s Warning to Ahmadinejad
NEW Iran’s American Detainee: The Case of Kian Tajbakhsh
Iran Video: The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad “Non-Kiss” (3 August)
Iran Video: The Abtahi “Confession”, Roohul Amini, and Tehran Trial (2-3 August)
The Latest from Iran (3 August): Trials and Inaugurations

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2000 GMT: Potentially serious development: Mir Hamid Hassanzadeh the person in charge of Ghalamnews during the elections has been arrested and his computer confiscated.

1425 GMT: The Times of London reports on the controversy yesterday sparked by Britain sending its second most senior diplomat in Tehran to yesterday's endorcement ceremony. The attendance of Patrick Davies, the British Embassy’s deputy head of mission, was criticised by opposition politicians. The Foreign Office defended its decision, arguing that it had to keep talking to the regime about its nuclear programme, human rights and other pressing issues, and that “to do this, communication channels have to be open”.

1300 GMT: Just in from our correspondent, Mani. Ayatollah Mohaghegh-Damad ( professor of Islamic law and philosophy) in an open letter to Shahroudi has slammed the legality of the recent televised trials and the performance of the judiciary. Ayatollah Damad characterized these televised trials as "an infamous blot on Islamic Jurisprudence".

1245 GMT: Tangential Editorial of the Day. Initially I thought The Washington Post meant well in its comment on the Iran situation, even if it immediately resorted to Cold War language: "Borrowing a page from Stalin's Russia, Iran's increasingly wobbly regime has embarked on a contemptible spectacle of show trials."

By the end of the editorial, however, I realised the Post didn't care that much about those in the streets and on trial: "These are dangerous days in Tehran, which only underscores the dilemma the Obama administration faces as it clings to a strategy of engaging Iran to contain its nuclear ambitions: Who is there to talk to?"

Leave aside for the moment that the question "who to talk to?" is almost abstract, given the current internal situation (as we noted yesterday). How many Iranians consider Iran's "nuclear ambitions" their pressing priority? And, if the answer is "not many at all", doesn't the Post's Cold War rhetoric say more about a US-centric agenda than any concern with freedoms and rights?

1215 GMT: Rabble-Rousing Headline of the Day. From Bloomberg.com: "Pentagon, Eyeing Iran, Wants To Rush 30,000-Pound Bomb Program".

Afternoon Update (1200 GMT) : Ebrahim Yazdi, former Foreign Minister and Secretary General of the Freedom Movement, has warned that Iran is on its way to becoming like the former Soviet Union: "the strongest totalitarian regime with very efficient but corrupt secret police".

Speaing to the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, Dr Yazdi expressed his fears for the fate of the 30-year-old revolution: "The Soviet Union collapsed because the leaders move to reform the system and respond to people's demands came late, and I believe that Iran is going down the same road." Dr Yazdi added:

The difference is that Iran is not an empire to disintegrate into republics, and the collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of the Marxist ideology. But unlike Marxism, Islam will not disappear;
it is part of our identity and culture and I am not worried about Islam. Islam has God to protect it; but I am worried about the republic and democracy in my country.

Morning Update (0630 GMT): We have a special feature on the American academic Kian Tajbakhsh, detained now for almost a month in the post-election crisis, but The New York Times updates this morning on the three American hikers who have fallen foul of Iran's authorities:

The identities of the three young Americans arrested by Iran last week while hiking near the country’s border with Iraq were confirmed Monday by Kurdish officials, who said they were planning to meet for a second time with their Iranian counterparts to discuss the case.

Swiss diplomats representing American interests in Iran, meanwhile, were trying to confirm the detentions with the Iranian Foreign Ministry and were seeking consular access to the detainees.

The newspaper Etemade Melli, associated with Mehdi Karroubi) has been warned by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, "Due to printing untruths and reports that place serious doubts on the legality of the 10th presidential election...the Ministry has given the newspaper a written warning." Those in charge of the newspaper are admonished to "remember to obey legal frameworks" and consider "what may or may not be to the advantage of the country and establishment" when they prepare their articles.

The deputy prosecutor of Tehran says that, when trials of almost 100 defendants resume after the Presidential inauguration, there will be legal representation: "On Thursday each of the accused will get an individual indictment.... and therefore they can introduce their attorneys to the court."

Iran Analysis: The Supreme Leader's Warning to Ahmadinejad

The Latest from Iran (4 August): A Day Between Protests
Iran’s American Detainee: The Case of Kian Tajbakhsh

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Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

For all the agonised analysis of the body language between the Supreme Leader and the President yesterday --- were they still friends? was there a bit of tension still about? when is a kiss not a kiss? --- all it would have taken to get a meaningful answer was this glance at Press TV English's website, "In Leader approval, Ahmadinejad warned over critics":

As certain political figures join opposition in rejecting the disputed election results, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution strongly backs the president for a second term, but urges him to heed the views of his “critics.”

In a step leading up to his inauguration in Parliament, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Monday threw his weight behind President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, describing him as "courageous, astute and hardworking."

The Leader added that his endorsement and the people's vote remains in place only until President Ahmadinejad stays "on the right path."

The entire article is a series of slaps to the President. "The endorsement decrees are normally read by the previous president -- even for the second term of the new president in office," but Mohammad Khatami was absent, and so were Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and "powerful cleric and official" Hashemi Rafsanjani. "There were also no representatives present from the family of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini."
The story up to yesterday is presented in neutral, even favourable, terms for the opposition:

The development against a backdrop of political trials comes as Ahmadinejad's much-disputed re-election in June was met with an outpouring of anger demonstrated in mass protests across the country, with demonstrators dubbing the poll as rigged.

At least 30 people were killed and thousands, including prominent Reformists and journalists, were rounded up in the course of the protests staged by supporters of the opposition who dismiss the official election result as "fraudulent" and call for its annulment.

With leading opposition figures Mousavi, Khatami and Karroubi refusing to acknowledge Ahmadinejad's presidency, the incumbent's re-election provoked bickering in the country's political circles.

Even more importantly, Rafsanjani gets three paragraphs of supportive coverage, including his statement, "Doubt has been created. There are two currents; one has no doubt and is moving ahead. And the other is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt."

The conclusion? Well, Press TV offers its own body-language photograph, which we've reprinted, for the article and notes, "Ayatollah Khamenei...insisted that the views of the critics 'should be given much reflection'."

Today Ahmadinejad shouldn't worry about kissing the Leader's shoulders. It's time to be looking over both of his own.

Iran's American Detainee: The Case of Kian Tajbakhsh

At 9 p.m. on 9 July, Iranian security forces arrested Kian Tajbakhsh, the only American detained in connection with Iran's post-election the crisis, in front of his wife and young daughter at their home in Tehran. His arrest was first announced on 13 July on state-sponsored Press TV English, which alleged that he was cooperating with Hossein Rassam, the head of the security and political division of the British Embassy in Tehran, to foment post-election turmoil. Rassam has since been released on bail, but Tajbakhsh continues to be detained in an unknown
location.

Then, on Saturday, Tajbakhsh appeared in a press conference after the Tehran trial of almost 100 defendants (there is no indication that Tajbakhsh was amongst the defendants). Family and friends of Tajbakhsh had previously warned in a public declaration that they feared he was being held in an attempt by the Iranian authorities to obtain forced statements from him, noting that “such statements are repeatedly extracted under conditions of torture for the sole purpose of staging televised show trials”. They are distressed by photos of Tajbakhsh published by the Iranian official agency Fars News, which indicate that he is under intense strain.

Tajbakhsh, who received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a social scientist and urban planner affiliated with the New School in New York. He has always been noted as an academic who has sought political neutrality in an effort to bridge cultural divides. However, Iranian state television is now pointing to his American citizenship to blame foreign powers, especially the US and Britain, for interference in its internal affairs and post-election disturbances.

Those seeking more information on the case can find it at the "Free Kian '09" website.