Since I was released from Tehran's notorious Evin Prison last month, the questions have come again and again: Should the Obama administration have a dialogue with Iran? Can we still talk to these people? What should the West do in nuclear negotiations?
After being jailed, interrogated and beaten by the Revolutionary Guards for 118 days for reporting honestly on the disputed June 12 presidential elections, many expect me to oppose any dialogue. But the West still needs Iran and should continue talking to it – no matter what it has done to people like me.
Inside Evin, I was forced to confess that I was part of an insidious Western media conspiracy to overthrow the regime. I was forced to apologize to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
I was released as suddenly as I was arrested, without explanation. But my interrogator told me to send a message to the world: “We are a superpower. America's power is waning and we will soon overtake them. Now that Americans have started this war against us, we will not let them rest in peace.”
He paused, perhaps realizing that he sounded defensive. I was a jailed journalist wearing a blindfold, not some sort of spy. He changed the subject to “soft” war, a term Tehran uses to refer to an imaginary war that it says is promoted by the media against the “holy government of the Islamic Republic.”
“We will answer their attacks with all our might,” he said.
The Guards are plagued by both deep insecurities and a superiority complex. They have ambitions to take over the government and expand their business empire in Iran. At the same time, they are terrified of individuals and groups that question their grip on power. They are the real power base of Ayatollah Khamenei. They are the main supporters of his claim to be Allah's representative on Earth.
One of the most serious charges against me was insulting Ayatollah Khamenei. In a private e-mail, I had wondered if he has been blinded by power and has lost touch with his people and if that was why he was answering people's peaceful demands with brute force. That was enough for my interrogator to kick and punch me for days and to threaten me with execution.
In Iran's triangle of power – the Guards, Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – the Guards are becoming stronger than the President and the Supreme Leader. Some are devoted to the ayatollah for religious reasons, but many of them use his status as a religious leader to legitimize their own actions. They also use Mr. Ahmadinejad, a former Guard, to increase their political power.
The Guards have arms and money. They are the country's biggest industrial contractors. They have front companies all over the region and in the West and are involved in smuggling goods into and out of Iran. They answer only to Ayatollah Khamenei.
So can the West, especially the United States, have a dialogue with these people? Yes. Because there is no other choice. The West has to negotiate with Iran on the nuclear program and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not talking to Tehran doesn't work: The hostile rhetoric and actions of the Bush administration against even the reformist government of former president Mohammad Khatami helped the hard-liners consolidate power. Only by engaging, even with a more radical regime, can the West force Tehran to measure the costs and benefits of dealing with the outside world.
