S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 IRAN RPO DUBAI 000007

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 2/28/2018
TAGS: IR PGOV
SUBJECT: EBRAHIM YAZDI ON US POLICY AND IRAN'S FUTURE

REF: 2006 DUBAI 5816

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CLASSIFIED BY: Jillian Burns, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, DoS.
REASON: 1.4 (d)



1. (S//NF) Summary: Former foreign minister and leader of
Freedom Party of Iran Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi (please protect)
discussed his views of US policies on Iran with IRPoff Feb 20
when he came to Dubai to collect his US visa. Yazdi expressed
his view that US policy on Iran is flawed and unclear, arguing,
that economic sanctions against Iran harm the people, but will
do nothing to change the Iranian government's behavior. Rather
than imposing economic sanctions on Iran, the US should
encourage trade and economic development in Iran, Yazdi said.
Although he thought the Iranian government should accept the
P5+1 offer and cease uranium enrichment, he believed that some
parts of that plan were flawed as well. Yazdi also criticized
VOA programming, saying that in his view the programming is not
only anti-Iran, but also anti-Islam. On the future of Iranian
politics, Yazdi dismissed the likelihood of gradual reform in
Iran; he believed the current system would eventually implode
due to inherent systemic flaws. Yazdi's views on the upcoming
Majles elections will be reported septel. End summary.

Yazdi on US policy

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2. (S//NF) Yazdi expressed his view in a Feb 20 meeting with
IRPoff that US policy on Iran is flawed and unclear. "Iranians
don't know what the US wants," he said, implying whether regime
change is a US goal or not. Although he said that his political
party, the banned Freedom Party, had expressed support for the
P5+1 offer in exchange for suspension of enrichment and
reprocessing and thought the Iranian government should accept
it, he said that some parts of the plan were flawed. Giving an
example of what he viewed as a flaw in the P5+1 offer, Dr. Yazdi
said the US should support rather than oppose plans for
pipelines from central Asia through Iran, and between Iran,
Pakistan, and India, because it has the potential to benefit the
entire region. Yazdi also opposed econ

omic sanctions against
Iran, arguing that they negatively impact the Iranian people,
but will do nothing to change the behavior of the Iranian
government. Rather than imposing economic sanctions on Iran,
the US should encourage trade and economic development in Iran,
he said. Economic liberalization, he argued, would be more
likely to foster political reform than economic sanctions.

VOA

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3. (S//NF) On Voice of America's Persian language programming,
Yazdi expressed his view that reporting often lacks credibility
and is too harsh-not just against Iran, but against Islam also.
He repeatedly called the programming "anti-Islam." Asked about
specific programs, statements, or presenters he found offensive,
Dr. Yazdi demurred, but was still emphatic about his assessment
of VOA. VOA is run by monarchists, Yazdi said, who have a clear
agenda of regime change, but also do not have any idea what
conditions in Iran are like and are out of touch with the
Iranian public.

The Iranian revolution and the future of Iranian politics

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4.(S//NF) Yazdi compared the Iranian revolution to the Bolshevik
revolution in Russia, saying both had created governments that
were systemically flawed and not sustainable. He predicted that
the current system of government in Iran would crumble due to
internal weaknesses, not external intervention. He repeated
comments he made in a February 16, 2008 interview with the New
York Times, saying that democracy cannot be imported, that it
must emerge indigenously. Yazdi dismissed the likelihood of
gradual reform in Iran, reiterating his view that the current
system would eventually implode. What differentiated the
Iranian revolution from the Russian revolution, he added, was
that the communist revolution was based on an ideology that was
discarded after the system fell. Iran's revolution, he

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insisted, was based on Islam, which will survive the fall of the
Islamic Republic.

Bio background

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5. (U) Yazdi is a US-educated medical doctor who served as the
Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic in 1979, during the
interim government of Mehdi Bazargan. He resigned along with
the rest of the interim cabinet following the seizure of the US
Embassy in Tehran in November 1979. He was one of the founding
members and is currently the head of the Freedom Movement of
Iran, which is banned by the Iranian government from
participation in politics. Yazdi registered as a candidate in
the 2005 presidential election, but was disqualified by the
Guardian Council.

6.(S//NF) IRPO met Yazdi on February 20 to deliver his US
non-immigrant visa, our second meeting with Yazdi (reftel).
Yazdi, who is 76 and a former legal permanent resident, is
currently in the US for medical treatment and to visit his Amcit
children. He said he has received several speaking invitations
from US universities (Stanford, Columbia, and Ohio universities
were some he named) but has not yet decided whether he will
accept any of them. Yazdi reported having difficulty with UAE
authorities upon arrival. Security officials at the Dubai
airport held his passport upon arrival and asked him to return
the following day for questioning. However, he said his
passport was returned to him the next day without extensive
questioning. Yazdi said that the UAE immigration officials were
apologetic on the second day and said they only wanted his
opinion about the current state of Iranian politics.


7. (S//NF) Comment: While Yazdi is not an influential player in
today's political scene in Iran and clearly had no chance of
being allowed to run for president in 2005, his views of the
situation in Iran are worth reporting. He was there at the
birth of the Islamic Republic and knows the system from the
inside out. His views of US policy may be colored by
difficulties he has had in recent years over visa-related
issues, but his belief that US trade with Iran will have more
impact on Iranian political culture than sanctions is shared by
many Iranians. Many of the Iranians who share this view are
from the business sector, who of course have a vested interest
in seeing sanctions lifted. End comment.
BURNS