Yearbook 2007
Iran. The tone around I's nuclear fission program was
raised during the year to suddenly be lowered in December
when the US intelligence service reported that Iran had most
likely stopped the program. In February, the United Nations
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had reported that Iran had not
complied with UN Resolution 1696 of December 2006, according
to which Iran must stop its enrichment of uranium. The United
Kingdom, France and Germany, which previously tried to
mediate between the United States and Iran, became
increasingly united with the United States and the
contradictions escalated. The United Nations Security
Council agreed on March 24 a new resolution, No. 1747, which
tightened sanctions against Iran by banning trade in Iranian
weapons and transactions with the various Revolutionary
Guards companies and with the State Bank Sepah, which the
United States had introduced an embargo on in January. In
September I announced: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
that Iran now had 3,000 nuclear centrifuges, machines that can
produce nuclear fuel. The United States unilaterally imposed
new financial sanctions on October 25 against the
Revolutionary Guard and its subsidiaries. New UN sanctions
appeared almost inevitable and speculation was raised about
the risk of a US attack on Iran. But on December 3, the crisis
was suddenly dampened when a so-called National Intelligence
Estimate (NIE), a joint report from all 16 US security
services, was published. According to the report, Iran had had
a nuclear weapons program until 2003 when it was disclosed,
stopped and probably not resumed. The
report, which went against the statements of the US
government with the implication that Iran was about to develop
nuclear weapons, eliminated the risk of war.
According to
CountryAAH, Ahmadinejad interpreted the report as a victory. But at
the same time it put him in a tight position domestic
politics. Without imminent threats from the United States,
he could no longer dismiss critics as traitors. It was also
clear that the nuclear program was partly a game of power,
capable of strengthening Iran on the international stage. Not
all Iranian politicians liked it. The country's pragmatists,
e.g. ex-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, seemed to
want to negotiate with the UN. In October, Ali Larijani,
chief negotiator in contacts with the West about the
program, resigned from everything to judge by a schism with
the president. In November, former chief negotiator Hossein
Mousavian was indicted for disclosing secret information to
other countries. He was released from the charges in
November. Hassan Rowhani, another former negotiator,
criticized the president for his confrontation policy which
he believed had aggravated the country's financial problems.
Already in January, 150 members of the Majlis (Parliament)
had condemned the president's economic policy and its
increasing dependence on oil revenues. In June, gasoline
rationing had been introduced, despite the country's huge
oil reserves. At the end of the year, inflation was
estimated to be up to 25 percent.
Ahmadinejad was at the center of the world's attention
even in other contexts than the core program. On March 23,
Iranian forces seized eight British flotists and seven naval
troops at the Shatt al-Arabs outlet in the Persian Gulf. The
United Kingdom claimed that the British were in Iraqi waters
while Iran believed that they violated Iranian territory. The
British were released on April 4, according to Ahmadinejad
as "a gift to the British people". On April 16, two Swedish
engineers, Stefan Johansson and Jari Hjortmar, were
released, who in May 2006 had been sentenced to three years
in prison for spying since photographing military buildings
on an island in the Hormuz Strait.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on
October 16 in connection with a summit for leaders from
countries around the Caspian Sea. It was the first time
since a Kremlin leader visited in 1943. In December, Russia,
after several delays, delivered enriched uranium to the
almost completely-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr, a
civilian facility under the control of the IAEA. The United
States had hoped that Russia would delay the delivery
further.
Several regime-critical newspapers were forced to close
during the year. Two Kurdish journalists, Adnan Hassanpour
and Abdolvahed "Hiva" Botimar, were sentenced to death on
July 16 for defying God and national security. During the
first eleven months of the year, 280 persons were executed,
compared with 177 during the whole of 2006.
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