{"id":6821,"date":"2010-12-01T11:12:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T07:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news10.hasanagha.org\/?p=3182"},"modified":"2010-12-01T11:12:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T07:42:22","slug":"viewing-cable-09unvievienna553-austrian-ambassador-to-iran-describes-elections-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/?p=6821","title":{"rendered":"Viewing cable 09UNVIEVIENNA553, AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRAN DESCRIBES ELECTIONS AS"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIf you find meaningful or important information in a cable, please link directly to its unique reference number. Linking to a specific paragraph in the body of a cable is also possible by copying the appropriate link (to be found at theparagraph symbol). Please mark messages for social networking services like Twitter with the hash tags #cablegate and a hash containing the reference ID e.g. #09UNVIEVIENNA553.
\nHelp us extend and defend this work
\nReference ID \tCreated \tReleased \tClassification \tOrigin
\n09UNVIEVIENNA553 \t2009-12-09 13:01 \t2010-11-28 18:06 \tCONFIDENTIAL \tUNVIE<\/p>\n

VZCZCXRO1474
\nOO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK RUEHTRO
\nDE RUEHUNV #0553\/01 3431343
\nZNY CCCCC ZZH
\nO 091343Z DEC 09
\nFM USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA
\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0393
\nINFO RUCNIRA\/IRAN COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
\nRUEHII\/VIENNA IAEA POSTS COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
\nRUEHVI\/AMEMBASSY VIENNA IMMEDIATE 1500<\/p>\n

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 UNVIE VIENNA 000553<\/p>\n

SIPDIS<\/p>\n

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12\/09\/2023
\nTAGS: PREL IR AU AORC KNNP
\nSUBJECT: AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR TO IRAN DESCRIBES ELECTIONS AS
\nDRIVING TEHRAN ENVIRONMENT<\/p>\n

REF: UNVIE 544<\/p>\n

Classified By: DCM Geoff Pyatt for reasons 1.4 (c) and (e)<\/p>\n

\u00b61. (C) Summary. On December 3, former Austrian Ambassador
\nto Tehran Michael Postl (please protect) debriefed MsnOff on
\nhis final calls on Iranian officials as he left post. He
\nnoted that former Presidents Khatami and Rafsanjani both had
\nextracted themselves from the normal political scene and were
\nfocused on tangential issues where their weight could still
\nbe felt. Nevertheless, Rafsanjani suggested that it would be
\nhelpful if the West spoke out against the election fraud and
\nhuman rights violations that followed.<\/p>\n

\u00b62. (C) Postl said that President Ahmadinejad’s chief of
\ncabinet, Mashaie, made clear to him prior to the Geneva talks
\nthat Iran was planning to approach the talks with a spirit of
\ncompromise and that Postl would be “surprised” by Iran’s
\nattitude. Postl explained the lack of follow-through in the
\nwake of the talks as a probable decision by Supreme Leader
\nKhamenei that the West was not trustworthy or that Iran could
\nget more from the P5 plus 1 than the six offered in Geneva.
\nMajles Speaker Larijani’s outspoken disapproval of the Tehran
\nResearch Reactor deal advocated by Ahmadinejad could have
\nbeen an exercise of Larijani’s first opportunity to undermine
\nAhmadinejad after he was pressured to disavow himself of
\nknowledge that Iranian prisoners were being raped in jail,
\nwhich lost him credibility with the Iranian public. Finally,
\nPostl argued that the U.S. should focus its outreach to Iran
\non formats that Iranians perceive are less biased, such as
\nBBC Persian’s version of Hardtalk or Press TV. End Summary.<\/p>\n

\u00b63. (C) On December 3, former Austrian Ambassador to Tehran
\nMichael Postl gave MsnOff a readout of the state of domestic
\npolitical wranglings in Tehran prior to his departure from
\npost in October. Now posted in Vienna, Postl noted that he
\nstill advises the Austrian government on Iran issues and that
\nhe was recently asked to see if his contacts in Iran would
\nmeet with him even though he had departed post. Many said
\nthat they would, so he may be asked by the Austrian Foreign
\nMinistry to return to Iran periodically to make use of the
\nexcellent contacts he was afforded given his Farsi skills and
\nnative Iranian wife.<\/p>\n

\u00b64. (C) Postl recounted his final calls on contacts in Iran
\nbefore leaving post, noting that many who had refused
\nmeetings with him after the elections were now willing to
\nmeet him. When he met with former President Khatami, Khatami
\nnoted that because of the post-election environment, it did
\nnot make sense to talk about politics. Postl suggested that
\nthey discuss the possibility of Khatami pursuing a dialogue
\nof civilizations or religions that might give him an opening
\nto the West. Khatami noted that he did want to focus more on
\nthat kind of dialogue and engagement and that he might come
\nto Austria next year in pursuit of such discussions.<\/p>\n

——————————————-
\nFinal Calls Reveal Disillusionment with the
\nPossibilities for Change
\n——————————————-<\/p>\n

\u00b65. (C) Postl noted that in his final calls, he sought out
\na meeting with the new health minister, Marzieh Vahid
\nDastjerdi since he was interested in meeting the Islamic
\nRepublic’s first female minister. Postl described her as
\n“sort of a puppet” and very insecure despite her good
\ncredentials for the job. She is a member of the Larijani
\nfamily, giving this influential clan placement in the
\nexecutive branch, in addition to the leverage they hold
\nthrough the key posts of Ali Larijani as Majles Speaker and
\nJavad Larijani as head of the Judiciary. In their meeting,
\nDastjerdi and Postl discussed possible cooperation between
\nIran and Austria in hospitals, training, and person-to-person
\ncontacts in the medical field.<\/p>\n

\u00b66. (C) Postl also called on the powerful new chief of
\nPresident Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, Mashaie. Postl said that
\nmany believed that Mashaie’s rejection for a vice
\npresidential post showed that there were disagreements
\nbetween Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader, but the fact that
\nhe was given the slot as head of the cabinet means that
\nKhamenei must not be fundamentally opposed to him. Postl was
\ncandid with Mashaie, noting that although the Iranian
\nelections were an internal matter, the treatment of civilians
\nin the aftermath of the elections was wrong by any
\ncalculation. Postl assessed that using Farsi instead of
\nEnglish made a difference in the reaction he received to this
\ncandor, and Mashaie said that he would be pleased to meet
\nwith Postl again if he were in Iran.<\/p>\n

UNVIE VIEN 00000553 002 OF 004<\/p>\n

\u00b67. (C) In what Postl believes was the first meeting former
\nPresident Rafsanjani had granted to a Westerner — and
\nperhaps the first meeting with a foreigner — since the
\nelections, the two discussed economic cooperation, which
\nRafsanjani said was his primary focus. They avoided the
\ntopics of the election and the nuclear issue, especially
\ngiven the presence of 10 to 15 “watchers” from different
\nveins of the Iranian government. Rafsanjani was very
\ninterested in non-nuclear energy cooperation and asked very
\ndetailed questions about wind energy, which Postl said
\nAustria would be able to help with. Rafsanjani also
\ndiscussed his sense of how the Iranian government could
\nevolve, arguing that change must come from within Iran and
\nthat interference from foreigners was not welcome in most
\ncircumstances. Nevertheless, Rafsanjani believed that the
\nbest help possible from foreigners would be to say that the
\nelections were not fair and to note the human rights
\nviolations in the aftermath, though he was not specific about
\nwhat he thought the influence of such statements would be.
\nPostl noted that recent months clearly had been hard on
\nRafsanjani; he looked pale and had lost a lot of weight, but
\nhis eyes were still “active,” according to Postl.<\/p>\n

\u00b68. (C) Postl described the positions of presidential
\ncandidates Karrubi and Musavi as children of the revolution
\nand argued that neither of them wants systemic change.
\nRather, they hoped to give Iran a “human face.” Since the
\n“population of Iran,” according to Postl, opposes the Islamic
\nsystem, the people are not very strongly behind either of
\nthese candidates. In closing out his comments on his final
\nmeetings in Tehran, Postl noted that after he departed post,
\nhis contacts were questioned thoroughly and aggressively,
\nwhich Postl described as a reality of life in Iran and
\ncontact with a Westerner.<\/p>\n

——————————–
\nInfighting and Confusion Driving
\nthe Nuclear Issue
\n——————————–<\/p>\n

\u00b69. (C) In his discussions at the end of September with
\nMashaie, Postl encouraged him to ensure that Iran did not
\n“miss the opportunity” presented by the talks in Geneva.
\nMashaie responded that Iran would be “sure to take” advantage
\nof this opportunity and told Postl that Postl would be
\nsurprised at Iran’s approach, that Iran would come with
\nseriousness and an attitude of compromise. Postl’s
\nassessment is that Iran decided that this was the right time
\nto show flexibility in order to get an agreement, especially
\nsince Ahmadinejad wants to claim responsibility for an
\nagreement with the West. Postl believes that Nuclear
\nNegotiator Jalili came to Geneva with this spirit of
\ncompromise and was following direction, presumably from
\nAhmadinejad. Iran’s failure to follow through on these
\nagreements may have been due to a decision by Khamenei either
\nthat the West was not trustworthy despite Iran’s supposed
\ngood intentions or that Iran could get more from the West or
\nP5 plus 1 than was offered in Geneva. Despite the fact that
\npeople close to the President say he wants “more,” the system
\ngets in the way as do Ahmadinejad’s bad advisers. Postl’s
\ninterlocutors say that if Ahmadinejad alone were to decide
\nabout engagement with the West, “things would move more
\nquickly.” Postl noted that Khamenei is still respected in
\nIran and, in his personal opinion, there is no essential
\ndivergence between the Supreme Leader and Ahmadinejad. On
\nissues where the Supreme Leader’s opinions were clear, Postl
\nargued that other influential Iranians would not “touch on
\nissues,” even to undercut Ahmadinejad. The only way to
\nchallenge these leaders was to focus on “unjust” or
\nun-Islamic behavior.<\/p>\n

\u00b610. (C) Postl said that Majles Speaker Larijani probably
\nwas not in favor of the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) deal,
\nbut when MsnOff questioned whether he really opposed the deal
\nor was responding to the fact that Ahmadinejad came out in
\nfavor of the deal, Postl recounted another possibility tied
\nto the post-election environment. Postl noted that he had
\nasked someone close to Larijani whether he was aware of the
\nrapes of election-related prisoners. The interlocutors said
\nthat not only was Larijani aware, but all officials were
\naware of what was going on inside the prison. Nevertheless,
\nwhen Larijani spoke publicly about the issue, he stated
\nclearly that the rapes are not occurring and thus lost some
\ncredibility with the Iranian public. To have not given a
\nmore ambiguous response, such as that he would look into the
\nsituation, Larijani must have been under strong pressure from
\nabove, in Postl’s estimation. Given the clarity that what
\nAhmadinejad had done after the election was wrong and
\nLarijani’s distaste for Ahmadinejad, the TRR proposal may
\nhave been Larijani’s first opportunity to strike back at<\/p>\n

UNVIE VIEN 00000553 003 OF 004<\/p>\n

Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n

\u00b611. (C) Postl also noted that Iran probably has whiplash
\nfrom the international community’s response to the Fordow
\nFuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which will complicate our
\nefforts to press Iran into compliance with its obligations.
\nAlthough IAEA Director General ElBaradei said after the first
\ninspection of the FFEP that it was nothing more than “a hole
\nin a mountain,” the IAEA Board of Governors passed a
\nresolution against Iran, citing the FFEP as one of its main
\npoints (ref A). Postl argued that this probably leads Iran to
\nbelieve that the international community is not serious about
\nthe issue, and that, rather, this is “a game.”<\/p>\n

\u00b612. (C) One of Postl’s contacts close to the Supreme
\nLeader pointed him to a Kayhan article from December 1,
\nwritten by editor Shariatmadari, which espouses the views of
\nKhamenei on the nuclear issue. The article argues that Iran
\nhas gotten nothing from cooperation and should withdraw from
\nthe NPT immediately. Since Khamenei has said that he is not
\nopposed to an opening with the U.S., it becomes about
\nWashington presenting the right arguments at the right time.
\nHowever, Postl said that bringing up the issue of the
\ndetained Americans at Geneva probably fell flat with the
\nIranians. Iranian officials told Postl that they were
\nsurprised that American officials raised this issue at those
\ntalks. This was the wrong time to bring up this issue, Postl
\nargued, since these issues are not connected in the minds of
\nthe Iranians. (We will explain to the Austrians why this
\nissue is so important and resonates so much to the U.S.)
\nPostl suggested that the UK model was better: when their
\nsailors were captured, UK officials said that this issue had
\nnothing to do with the political problems between the two
\ncountries. The dissociation of the issues worked in favor of
\ngetting the sailors released. Pressed on when might be such
\na right time to address the U.S. detainees, Postl suggested
\nthat one such way might have been to capitalize on the
\nOctober 1 Geneva talks by following up quickly with a call
\nfrom Under Secretary Burns to Jalili “in the spirit of
\nGeneva.” During that phone call, Burns could engage Jalili
\non the detainee issue as an aside. Postl also noted that
\nsome of his Iranian government contacts had noted with
\npleasure the appointment of Ambassador Limbert to deal with
\nthe Iranian file given his understanding of Iran.<\/p>\n

—————————-
\nPostl’s Tehran Retrospective
\n—————————-<\/p>\n

\u00b613. (C) Looking back on his tenure as Ambassador to Iran,
\nPostl noted that the biggest “game changer” had been this
\npast summer’s presidential elections. The events were
\ncausing backlash from much of the population. Parents and
\ngrandparents were saying, according to Postl, that they do
\nnot want their children to be forced to experience the same
\nIran that they, themselves, have been living under for the
\nlast 30 years. For the first time, one can see “kill
\nKhamenei” and “death to Khamenei” scrawled on walls in
\nTehran. These direct challenges to Khamenei’s authority are
\nnew and significant. Additionally, Postl expects that the
\npopulation was disillusioned by the overwhelming fraud in the
\nelections and many will not vote in the future.<\/p>\n

\u00b614. (C) On engagement, Postl suggested that some ways
\nforward for the U.S. and Iran might be to look into using a
\nroute from Chah Bahar, on Iran’s southern coast, to get U.S.
\nsupplies into Afghanistan and using the assumption of office
\nby new IAEA Director General Amano to press for “a new start”
\non the Additional Protocol and additional transparency
\nmeasures discussions.<\/p>\n

\u00b615. (C) Postl reiterated his message that Iranian citizens
\nsee the Voice of America (VOA) as biased and asked that we
\nnot underestimate their frustration. If they see a pervasive
\nmedia outlet as biased, this presents the U.S. in a negative
\nlight and works against U.S. messaging. He said that Iranians
\ncurrently are faced with two biased choices: VOA and Iranian
\nBroadcasting (IRIB). In response to a MsnOff question about
\nhow BBC Persian is perceived, he noted that it is seen as
\nmore neutral, but has the stigma of being associated with the
\nUK. Postl floated the idea of U.S. support to Euro News to
\nstart broadcasting in Farsi. He also suggested that doing
\nHardtalk in Persian might be one of the best outlets for U.S.
\narguments since the format of pitting opposing viewpoints
\nagainst one another would counteract the perception of bias,
\nbut suggested that if our arguments to the Iranian people are
\nnot convincing, this quickly would become clear. Finally,
\nPostl noted that the U.S. should not shy away from interviews
\nwith Iranian media outlets, suggesting Press TV because it is
\nin English and it is watched in Tehran. A program built<\/p>\n

UNVIE VIEN 00000553 004 OF 004<\/p>\n

around broadcasting the differing opinions of the U.S., India
\n(because its opinion is well-respected given its influence as
\na leader in the Nonaligned Movement), and Iran might be a
\nuseful way to get our messages across while counteracting
\nperceptions of bias.
\nDAVIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wikileaks: If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs Understanding cables Every cable message consists of three parts: * The top box shows each cables unique reference number, when and by whom it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,4],"tags":[3874,2051,452,2792,2057,3884,55,757,3885,1746],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/news08.hasanagha.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}