|
 The role of the students is back in the spotlight following the
appointment of a new U.N. ambassador who may have participated on
the fringes of the siege, the event that led Washington to sever
ties with Tehran shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The U.S. State Department, which has yet to approve a visa for Hamid
Abutalebi, said it had raised "serious concerns" with Iran about his
nomination for the post.
But Iran hopes the case can be resolved, while Abutalebi has played
down his role in the hostage crisis, suggesting he was just a
translator.
"He is one of Iran's most prominent and senior diplomats. We hope
there will be an agreement (to his appointment) in the normal way,"
Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told
reporters in Kuwait.
Abutalebi has held postings in Europe and was appointed deputy
director of political affairs in the office of President Hassan
Rouhani in September. Friends say that like many of his fellow
former student activists, he is now pro-reform.
But hardline U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday they were concerned
about his selection and called on the Obama administration to do
what it can to prevent him from taking up the post in New York.
People who know Abutalebi said he was part of the student group that
occupied the embassy, although not among the core activists inside
the embassy who captured and held the hostages.
Lawyers for the former captive embassy workers have said the
ex-hostages are angry about the nomination of Abutalibi, a man they
say was involved in the crisis, and want him barred from New York.
But some analysts and officials argue that with the passage of time,
most of the leaders of the 300 or so radicals whose action
galvanized world attention have become outspoken advocates of the
need to reform Iran's Islamic political system.
"They are simply middle-aged Iranians who now even advocate close
ties with the West," said a senior Iranian official, who asked not
to be named.
DEMONSTRATORS
Some paid for their change of opinion with arrest, seen by security
hawks as a threat. Some won prominence under former reformist
President Mohammad Khatami, but moved to the political margins under
his hardline successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As students, almost all of the hostage takers were active in the
revolution that overthrew Iran's U.S.-backed shah. But years later,
the ranks of the hostage takers also gave birth to a movement for
reform of Iran's Islamic system, analysts said.
Like many ordinary Iranians, the former students opposed powerful
hardliners who considered any talks about normalizing ties with "the
Great Satan" anathema.
Many Iranians are not anti-American. Thanks to the Internet and
illegal satellite television, U.S. popular culture is influential
among young Iranians.
However, the pro-reformist ex-hostage takers are limited in their
ambitions. They are committed to the Islamic Revolution, but want to
reform the establishment within that framework.
EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION
"They are not pro-Western, though they support engagement with the
West. They do not want revolution but want an evolution," said
analyst Hamid Sedghi.
Among the hostage takers were Abbas Abdi, an adviser to Khatami, who
in 1998 met former hostage Barry Rosen in Paris.
Abdi made no apology and said the past could not be altered. Instead
"we must focus on building a better future", he said.
In 2002 Abdi was arrested for having carried out a poll in
collaboration with U.S. firm Gallup which showed that three quarters
of Tehran's citizens favored a thaw with Washington.
[to top of second column] |
Reform leader Saeed Hajjarian survived an assassination attempt in
2000 by unidentified people but was gravely injured and has not
recovered. Khatami's younger brother Mohammad Reza and his deputy
foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh were also among the hostage
takers.
While some of the group have disappeared from politics, others are
still ardent defenders of Iran's strict religious rule and defiance
of the international community.
"Some of them still believe the embassy takeover helped strengthen
anti-American fervor in Iran," said analyst Hamid Farahvashian. "But
most of them believe in reforms."
FALLING OFF COURSE
Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009 ended an era in which
former hostage-takers held key positions in government and
parliament.
Disagreements between former hostage takers and hardliners came to
the fore after the 2009 vote, which the opposition said was rigged
and ignited eight months of violent street unrest.
In a comment widely taken as a reference to the turmoil, former
hostage taker Masumeh Ebtekar wrote on her blog Persian Paradox:
"Those who were all devotees and trustees of the Islamic Revolution
... felt that the Islamic Republic is facing a serious challenge to
its basic principles and values."
Ebterkar, who was Iran's vice-president under Khatami, a post she
resumed under Rouhani, was the public face of the siege, serving as
a spokeswoman for the hostage-takers.
Aides to reformist candidates were jailed in the post-election
unrest, including former hostage takers Mohsen Mirdamadi and
Aminzadeh, on charges including "acting against national security"
and "propaganda against the system".
Mirdamadi was sentenced to six years in prison and a 10-year ban on
political and media activities. He was temporarily released in
December 2013. Aminzadeh, sentenced to six years in jail in 2010,
was freed in 2013 after 10 months in hospital.
"The slogans that carried us forward as revolutionary students in
1980 might no longer hold all the answers to the problems of today,"
wrote Ebtekar.
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who was also a spokesman for the hostage
takers, has also hinted he is no longer a hardliner.
"Now I am more experienced and more realistic," Asgharzadeh, a
former member of Tehran's city council, was quoted as saying by
Iranian media. "I no longer take radical actions and I believe
gradual reforms last longer than radical changes."
Since Rouhani took office in August, Washington and Tehran have
taken tentative steps toward improving relations. But Iran's most
powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continues to give speeches
larded with denunciations of "the Great Satan" to reassure
hardliners.
(Additional reporting by Sylvia Westall in Kuwait;
writing by Parisa
Hafezi; editing by William Maclean and Giles Elgood)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
