"To Bash Them Is to Help Them"
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 2:02PM Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the Islamic Republic's first president and current dissident exile in Paris, argues that confrontational policies by the West only serve to strengthen the regime's hand:
Sanctions will be counterproductive because the threat of international crisis is the Iranian regime’s only remaining resource for legitimizing its despotic power....Since Mr. Ahmadinejad took power, however, even most of the clergy have either deserted the regime or are being forced out. The situation is thus more fragile still. It is in this context that the creation of international enemies is the last bastion of the regime’s ability to hold on to power.
His suggestions:
If governments sincerely support the democratic movement in Iran, they should adopt a position of active neutrality. Such a policy not only means avoiding confrontation; it also means taking an “active” stance on human rights issues, publishing information listing the names and financial holdings that key members of the regime have in foreign banks, stopping the sale of technology that can be used for censorship and oppression, and, finally, supporting efforts to try the leaders of Iran for crimes against humanity because of their increasingly harsh repression.