THE IRANIAN
News & Views
White House Agrees to Radio Broadcasts to Iran
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
The New York Times
April 15, 1998
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, under pressure from Congress, has agreed to create a Persian-language radio service to beam anti-government propaganda into Iran, administration officials said on Tuesday.
The White House and State Department had initially opposed the move, which was mandated in legislation last year.
The administration, led by Thomas Pickering, undersecretary of state for political affairs, had argued that such a service would run counter to the administration's strategy of trying to find small gestures that would both bolster the standing of President Mohammad Khatami and perhaps even move Iran's ruling clerics to accept direct talks with the United States.
The creation of the new service is also certain to be interpreted in an image-conscious society like Iran as a rebuff to the initiative by Khatami last January for cultural exchanges as a way to break down decades of mistrust.
The administration reached an agreement on the compromise plan earlier this month with the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an administration-appointed bipartisan independent group of overseers, administration officials said.
Under the plan, which has not been announced, the administration will give Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $900,000 to start the project.
In an effort to blunt criticism that it is trying to undermine the Iranian government, the administration would give another $1 million to Voice of America, which is considered a general news program without a political agenda, to augment its Persian-language programming.
The State Department spokesman, James Rubin, denied on Tuesday that the decision to create the new service was an effort to criticize or undermine the Iranian government.
"We do not believe that going forward with surrogate broadcasting is inconsistent with the clear message we have sent to the Iranian government publicly that we are encouraged by recent political developments and would like to have an authorized, acknowledged dialogue on issues of mutual concern," he said in a telephone interview.
Radio Free Europe will not be able to administer the new service from its headquarters in Prague because of opposition from the Czech government, State Department officials said. The Czechs argued in conversations with the administration that the radio station could set off Iranian-inspired terrorism on their territory.
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