Now that the fifteen British hostages have been released it is possible to sum up the actions of both sides in this disgraceful incident.
First of all, we can see that Mighty Mouth, Ahmadinejad, chief embarrassment of the Iranian nation, has had to conjure up an incident just when the U.N was discussing whether to sanction Iran.
There was no chance that Iran would have been seriously punished by the U.N. That organisation is anachronistic and serves no ethical purpose at all.
Nevertheless, the Iranian mouthpiece who has been losing support in his own country because he could not effect an economic upturn for the multitude of poverty-stricken Iranians, decided that it was time to prance around on the world stage and get into the news once again.
He can’t stand being out of the limelight for one minute, can he?
Everybody knows that the real power in Iran belongs to the ayatollahs and that he is their puppet. The word is that they do not like the way he has turned their nation into an object of ridicule.
Whilst some people believed that the Brits should have been tougher with him, my opinion is that they were very smart to use the softly softly approach with this jester. One can’t reason with a nutcase, so one must placate him, for a short while anyway.
I think that he wanted the Brits to threaten him and their patience actually took him by surprise.
It’s very hard to know how to handle such a prima donna as Ahmadinejad, but one thing for sure is that with people who have an inferiority complex, one must flatter and cajole and be patient. It’s akin to humoring a spoilt brat. And when that no longer works then the whip must be applied. There is no doubt that Mighty Mouth suspected that the Brits would not wait much longer and that is why he decided to hand the hostages back.
The confessions were a farce which nobody believed, not even the Iranians themselves. The farewell reception which resembled a scene from “Borat” was reminiscent of Saddam Hussein’s friendly parties for the human shields of over ten years ago.
On the 7th April, some of the released sailors held a press conference in which they told the truth about their capture. They had been on routine patrol well inside Iraqi waters when they were suddenly surrounded by many Iranian boats. Outnumbered, they were taken to Tehran where they were held for two weeks. Conditions were terrible. Sleeping on floors, isolated from one another, shackled and blindfolded, they were dressed in pajamas except when they were paraded in front of the Iranian media daily and made to confess their sins.
The only female sailor amongst them was told that everyone else had been sent home and that she was left behind. There were many such examples of psychological torture.
I wonder how the mother of one of the hostages feels today now that she had learned the truth about her son’s ill-treatment. Yesterday, she had thanked god for the kindness of the Iranian people when the hostages were released. Bet she’s wondering where god was when her son was captured in the first place. It’s amazing how god never gets the blame for anything bad. He only appears in the credits. Lucky for him!
As an Ancient History teacher, I can’t help but feel sad when I think of how great the Persian nation once was and now look at it.
Shrouded in dark misery, hated by the rest of the world, Iran now acts as a warning against religious fanaticism. If you restrict free expression, then you close the minds and hearts of a once proud nation.
LiliGans.com 
Iran has a terrible human rights record, but it’s more accomodating of other religions than most other countries in the Middle East. For instance, it has the region’s second largest Jewish community and dedicated seats for jews in its parliament. As in Israel, having a state defined by religion isn’t the problem.
Rather, the problem is a closed electoral system, where the voters are only given limited choices that have been vetted (in part) according to their acceptance of the national relgion. The result is that they vote in an idiot who doesn’t speak for them and incites pointless disputes with distant countires. Sound familiar?
As you rightly point out, Ahmadinejad needs these sorts of international incidents to maintain domestic support and to keep sanctions at bay. The question is: why was he given the gift of inexperienced Western naval officers in dinghies floating in plausibly disputed waters? (The whole Persian Gulf, especially the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates, is disputed.)
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I take your point about former tolerance for Jews but I had read that this was not the case now. Apparently, Jews are feeling uneasy in Iran under this regime. Some have been arrested as spies for Israel and since been released.
I’d be grateful if you could provide more info on Jews having dedicated seats in parliament nowadays.
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There’re (unsurprisingly) contrasting accounts of the lives of jews in Iran. See:
http://www.forward.com/articles/iranian-jews-reject-outside-calls-to-leave/
and
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iranjews.html
(Both Jewish sources.) It seems that the chief issue is the ban on supporting Israel, just like most of the Middle East.
Iran is no human rights star (to say the least) but it isn’t Saudi Arabia either . For example, the NYT reported that two Iranian newspapers have strongly criticised Ahmadinejad in recent days for botching the hostage situation. (They argue that he should have got more concessions from Britain and played the international community better.) Iran’s problem is its government (and its political system), not its society or religion.
The Iranian Constitution reserves fives seats in the Majils (parliament) for ‘recognised minority religions’, a provision that has existed for a century. There’s presently two for Armenians and one each for Assyrians, Jews and Zoroastrians. (Non-recognised religions are denied much more than their seat in the Majils.)
The current Jewish representative, Maurice Motammed, is a supporter of Iran’s nuclear policy but a critic of both Amadinejad and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
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