Revolutionary Iran : A History of the Islamic Republic (9781846142925) by Axworthy Michael

Author:Axworthy, Michael [Axworthy, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846142925
Publisher: Penguin Books Uk Ltd
Published: 2019-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

Iran-Contra demonstrated just how sore a wound the Iran–US relationship had become, and turned it septic for a further extended period. Having contributed to the fall of one American president (Carter), the Iran Problem had now damaged a second – with little in either experience to encourage any third to try to fix it. After Iran-Contra, as if in an attempt to regain its credentials for seriousness in the region, the Reagan administration turned much more firmly against Iran in the Iran–Iraq War.

Within Iran, none of those most closely involved in the negotiations suffered by Iran-Contra. Rafsanjani glossed the affair and the McFarlane visit in particular, saying that the Americans had been under arrest after they landed, and implying that Khomeini had sanctioned the contact. Senior Iranians covered themselves by denouncing the US. Attempts by leftists to use the affair to attack Rafsanjani and their other opponents in the Majles were scotched by Khomeini’s intervention to halt further investigations. The main Iranian to suffer by the exposure of Iran-Contra was the one who had leaked it – Mehdi Hashemi, who was arrested with forty others a few days before the news broke on another matter that also seemed to demonstrate an excess of zeal – some of his people kidnapped the Syrian chargé d’affaires. This kind of blatant extra-legal action was becoming less acceptable. Eventually Hashemi made a televised confession accusing himself of ‘deviation’ and was executed with some others after a trial in August 1987.140 Reyshahri masterminded the interrogation, trial and execution, and later gave an account of the process in his memoirs which is intriguing for its chilling understatement, leaving aside whatever doubts one may have about what may have been omitted. Reyshahri wrote there that he had carried out three important interrogations or trials before – General Moghagheghi after the Nozheh coup attempt, Qotbzadeh, and Ayatollah Shariatmadari. But at first he and the other investigators had little success with Mehdi Hashemi. Reyshahri consulted the Koran, and then went back to the interrogation with a sense of renewed strength:

Reyshahri: Are you not frightened of God?

Hashemi: Yes, sure (chera).

Reyshahri: (repeats) Are you frightened?

Hashemi: Yes.

Reyshahri: God knows what you are up to, and you know what you have done, so why don’t you say what happened?

Hashemi: I have said it already. Some details I may not have told.

Reyshahri: Have you told all the points?

Hashemi: No.

Reyshahri: OK, tell.

Hashemi: OK, I will tell.

In that way simple words were exchanged between us, but each word had a significance beyond what was normal. God put force into the simple words such that the accused was brought up short. After that, Mehdi Hashemi promised to tell the truth. I gave him a little advice and I frightened him with the thought of scandal and the expectation of the next world … ‘Imagine that God is going to interrogate you, and answer to him’ … His real interrogation started from that date. He admitted some of the murders he had committed before the revolution and his cooperation with the interrogators was remarkable.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.