By Mehrangiz Kar
This article was originally written in Farsi and translated by the AIC's staff, upon the request of Mehrangiz Kar, for publication in the AIC Update.

For 27 years, people of Iran have been suffering from the tensions in the US-Iran relations, but the embezzlers affiliated with the centers of power have benefited from it. For 27 years, the Iranian authorities have imposed a whole range of economic, political, cultural and social restrictions on the people and have justified their official repressions in the name of fighting against international oppressors. For years, the middlemen who manage the international black market have been helping the Iranian government to obtain the products it needs and sell its own products. There have been cases in which weapons have been purchased from these middlemen at much inflated prices and oil has been sold to them, in an unusual manner in the middle of the ocean, at very low prices. The relation between the Iranian government and the agents of the international black market has been strengthened and economic corruption has increased since the imposition of economic sanctions on Iran by the United States.

By Hooshang Amirahmadi

The Bush Administration has been without an Iran policy since it took office in January 2001. The containment policy it inherited from the Clinton Administration was under review when the tragedy of September 11 occurred. The US then drifted toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and declared Iran as belonging to an "Axis of Evil." However, as Iran's nuclear crisis became more global, the Administration refocused attention on Iran. The broad contours of an Iran policy were outlined by Secretary Condoleezza Rice and two senior officials of the State Department on 15 February 2006. Dr. Rice made her remarks at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the officials briefed the media.(i)