Hands off Iran!

U.S. gov’t sanctions take
toll on Iranian economy

BY CINDY JAQUITH
October 4—In recent weeks, the governments of Iran and the United States have signaled willingness to resume talks on Iran's nuclear program, as increased military and economic pressures by the U.S. government and its allies have widened fissures within the Iranian ruling class. Meanwhile, Iranian officials confirmed today that a formidable computer worm has infected at least some computers at their Bushehr nuclear facility, as well as other industrial sites.

Startup of the Bushehr reactor at the country’s first nuclear power plant has been delayed. It’s unclear whether the worm, code named “Stuxnet,” is a factor, as Iranian officials attributed the delay to other technical problems.

The worm’s sophistication suggests it was designed by a state power, Stars and Stripes reported. “A handful of countries, including the U.S., Israel, and Russia, are believed to have the ability to craft such a weapon.” The paper said while Stuxnet has also hit other countries, Iran appears to be the target.

On September 22 Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced that his government is reneging on a deal to sell an antiaircraft missile system to Iran. The weapon would have made much more difficult a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Washington and Tel Aviv have acknowledged discussions on launching such a strike if they cannot get the Iranian government to stop enriching uranium.

The Iranian government says its nuclear program is not aimed at weapons procurement. The country’s facilities enrich uranium in very small amounts and only at grades suitable for power generation and medical research purposes. However, Washington and its allies seek to block any advance in the country’s nuclear technology, which would bring it closer to weapons producing capacity.

The White House released a statement praising Moscow’s cancellation of the S-300s, saying it "continues to demonstrate how Russia and the United States are cooperating closely on behalf of our mutual interests."

Negotiations on enriching uranium
Last year negotiations fell through on a proposal for Tehran to have its uranium enriched by other countries. By this summer, however, it became clear that sanctions against Iran had begun to hurt and Washington’s and Israel’s military threats had intensified, leading some in Iran’s capitalist class to wonder if the nuclear course Tehran is on is worth it.

On September 22 U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton met with the foreign ministers of Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany. They announced their " determination and commitment to seek an early negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue."

The next day Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled to New York to address the United Nations. He told reporters, "We are ready for dialogue," and said he expected negotiations to begin soon.

Ahmadinejad’s speech to the UN was laced with anticapitalist rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including the anti-Semitic charge that the majority of the U.S. population believes the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center was orchestrated by “segments within the U.S. government … to reverse the declining American economy and its grip on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime.”

More than 33 UN delegations, including all the European Union countries and the United States, walked out.

The day after his speech Ahmadinejad told reporters that Tehran might stop enriching uranium if the imperialist powers provided it with nuclear fuel for a medical research reactor.

The toll the sanctions are taking on Iran’s economy continues to mount. Tehran has just ended subsidies for electricity with no advance notice, Reuters reported September 21. Some Iranians received bills that were 10 times higher than before. The move is the first in a series of measures the government claims will save $100 billion by reducing subsidies on food, fuel, transportation, and other basic goods.

Clearly worried about the popular reaction to this attack on Iranians’ standard of living, Tehran postponed the ending of the subsidy on gasoline for another month.

Meanwhile, the Tehran prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, announced plans to indict two bourgeois opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Both ran for president against Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Iran’s national police chief charged October 1 that the opposition will launch “economic sedition” when subsidies are ended. This would include strikes and closing down the bazaars, he said, to “complement the enemies’ economic pressures,” referring to the sanctions.