Keyhan Kasravi

BERLIN/TEHRAN—Since the rise of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the radical faction to power in the Islamic Republic in 2005, Iran’s nuclear issue and the possibile consequences of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons have received much more attention in the West than in the past.

Ahmadinejad’s faction of the government handled the nuclear issue with aggressive stance. This was a departure from the approach former President Mohammad Khatami had taken. Ahmadinejad tried to show that Iranians were united in supporting the country’s nuclear enrichment program. In various speeches and interviews, Ahmadinejad tried to convince the audience that he was representing the will of the Iranian people.

Behind the scenes, however, the reality is different. In Iran, only the state-run media is allowed to cover the nuclear issue, and all reformist media outlets are banned from participating in the nuclear debate. Many university professors, commentators, and members of the intelligentsia, along with a large segment of the society, are opposed to how the government is handling this issue. Their voices, however, are not represented in the public debate, and even if they were, voicing their opinions would threaten their safety.

Some leading professors of international relations in Iran’s major universities believe that by gaining access to nuclear weapons, Iran’s regional and global power will not increase. These professors were fired from their positions and had to leave the country. Those opposing the government’s aggressive approach believe that a nuclear Iran will not be in the interest of the Iranian people. On the contrary, it will impose severe costs. The government has banned all media in Iran from writing about the U.N. resolutions against Iran and economic sanctions against Iran.

By creating a media ban, the government has been able to impose its views on the people and pretend Iranians support a nuclear-armed Iran. All of these actions are undertaken by a government headed by a president that does not allow any Iranian journalists to visit the nuclear facilities.

Before the controversial June 12 elections in Iran, the government tried to persuade the world that all Iranians supported the nuclear program as a form of national pride. But Iran has continued to deceive its own people and the world.

The Iranian government has always tried to tell the Iranian people that the nuclear issue has been resolved, and if negotiations are held in the West, they are merely to address other problems in the world. It is for this reason that the leadership in Iran, despite retreating from its radical positions, tries to portray the Geneva meeting on October 1 as a great victory for the Iranian people. They are claiming that the superpowers, led by the United States, are defeated! But holding onto that lie is becoming difficult.

Evidence shows that regarding the nuclear case, the Iranian government has not only manipulated the West but its own people. Secrecy is the essential feature of Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Consider Ahmadinejad’s nervous reactions and his bewildered face when he suddenly learned that the West had intelligence on Qom’s nuclear facility. When he was confronted by the editor of Time magazine in New York and was told that President Obama was going to give a speech about this issue in a few hours, Ahmadinejad was shocked and became angry. It was only then that Ahmadinejad admitted to the existence of this facility. By analyzing the behavior of Iranian leaders regarding the nuclear issue, we can surmise that the facility in Qom is not the only hidden facility in Iran .

The Iranian government has tried to convince the Iranian people that the nuclear issue has been resolved and that the ongoing negotiations with the West focus on other critical issues facing the world. The government also tries to persuade Iranians that the Geneva meeting on October 1 was a great victory for Iran and that the superpowers led by the United States were defeated in the talks.

The leaders try to convey these messages through the domestic, state-run media. Iran ’s hard-line, apocalyptic figures, led by Ahmadinejad, act as though they are the future world leaders, and the world is waiting to benefit from their rule. But history shows that such figures do more harm than good.