Diplomacy, Iranian style
World Affairs / Roya Hakakian
24-May-2010

Last July, Iranian officials arrested Clotilde Reiss, a young French student in Tehran who subsequently confessed, like so many other prisoners, to charges of espionage. From the staggering heap of spies caught in Iran since June 2009 — whose numbers far surpass the amount of intelligence that could possibly exist for gathering —  the French spy was picked to be freed. Her two five-year sentences were commuted for the price of three billion rials and one man. The relatives of Reiss supplied the three billion, and President Sarkozy supplied the man: Ali Vakili Rad — the assassin of Iran’s former prime minister, Shapour Bakhtiar.

Scores of Iranian exiles have been killed throughout Europe, yet Europe, in defiance of the US, or in loyalty to its own trade interests, has allowed Iran to breathe new life into the cliché “get away with murder.”

>>>
recommended by Fred

Share/Save/Bookmark