I just got out of a lecture on campus by Dr. Nasser Hadian, who is a visiting professor at Columbia University. This lecture was part four of a series of guest lectures about the Iraqi-American conflict. You can get more information about the series on the University website. Dr Hadian is an expert on Iranian foreign policy, and gave a brief, yet thorough, overview of Iranian government and Iranian opinions about war in Iraq.
Because the Iranion government has over 30 political parties, the lecture seemed very scattered to me. Dr. Hadian attempted to split the different parties into two main categories, but even with this categorical distinction I still felt slightly overwhelmed by the number of things he was trying to explain one after the other. Because of this comprehensive explanation of how the Iranian government is organized, the lecture was not very captivating, and I noticed several people around me who were sleeping. I didn’t fall asleep, but I did yawn several times. 😊
I think the main point he was trying to make is that most of the people in Iran believe that the best thing to do in this situation is to remain completely neutral. They feel if they show any support for the U.S. that Saddam, in a last ditch attempt at getting revenge, will fire missiles at Tehran. These missiles could contain any number of biological weapons which would create a complete catastrophy, since the city of Tehran is home to over 10 million people.
Another concern of the people in Iran is that after the war the U.S. may attack them. Dr. Hadian dismissed this idea, claiming that after the U.S. takes out Iraq, President Bush will become too concerned about his re-election, and will turn to U.S. domestic issues such as the economy. It is not until Bush is re-elected that Iran really has to start worrying about a U.S. attack. Now, I know that the U.S. has declared North Korea and Syria as part of the “Axis of Evil”, so I would imagine we would go after one of those two next. If anybody can explain to me why in the heck we would attack Iran, please do so in a comment.
All in all the lecture gave me a good understanding of what countries (not just Iran) near Iraq think about the whole conflict. Most of them want Saddam out, but they are afraid of how war will affect them. 