Why the US Election is Important for Iran

The World’s Marco Werman speaks with staff from the BBC’s Persian Service about why the US election is so important for Iran.

Pooneh Ghoddoosi is a host at the BBC Persian Service; Amir Azimi, who speaks first, is news editor.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Aaron Schacter: All this week we’ve been hearing some really compelling voices on the election, whether it’s people in the areas hard hit by Sandy, or people living far from American shores. You can find all of our election campaign coverage at theworld.org/elections, and of course we’re on Twitter, join the conversation #theworldvotes. The World’s Marco Werman has been in London the past few days.

Marco Werman: Hello, Aaron. Did you vote?

Schacter: Yes, sir. And you?

Werman: Yeah, three weeks ago. Absentee ballot.

Schacter: Now that was good thinking ahead. So Marco, this week you’ve been talking to people around the world about the American presidency and about today’s vote here in the U.S. What do you have for us today?

Werman: Well, I had a great chat with two journalists from the BBC’s Persian Service right here in London. They are on-air host Pooneh Ghoddoshi and News Editor Amir Azimi. Let’s begin with Amir Azimi telling me why the U.S. election is so important for Iran this year.

Amir Azimi: This is pretty huge this time, because the negotiations between Iran and the U.S. on the nuclear program is at a very crucial point right now, and the sanctions which have been imposed bu the U.S. and the Europeans is biting really hard right now. They see this election and the next person who takes over the White House, pretty much decides their futures.

Werman: It’s interesting. A recent poll taken in Pakistan found that if Pakistani’s could vote in the U.S. presidential election Romney would win by a landslide. What do you think would happen if the vote were held in Iran?

Pooneh Ghoddosi: People in Iran are watching these elections with bated breath because it is very important to them right now who will become the next President. Obviously, for the past four years Obama has been talking tough, but there hasn’t been a worse situation, in terms of war, at least. Although, the sanctions are crippling the economy of Iran and that’s the kind of thing that any moment you decide to negotiate or drop the enrichment you can actually go back, as Hillary Clinton offered a carrot about a month ago, and she said, ‘The moment you drop enrichment we can always go back to renegotiating, and reinvesting, and doing trade with Iran.’ But Romney has had, really, a tough stance against Iran. In all of his election campaign, in all of his speeches and debates, he’s always mentioned things that give a little bit of a shiver on the spine of every Iranian. The thought of the possibility of a worse situation like war, or other options they keep saying are on the table, coming to head. Therefore, I think at this moment, Iranians, who have not seen anything great happening between the U.S. and Iran in the four years of Obama, are still really worried that if Romney becomes President it could be even worse. However, in history, actually, although there’s always been this worry of Neo-cons and Republicans being tougher against Iran, history has proven that every time a Democrat has been in power relations with Iran have been worse, and every time a Republican, ironically, has been in power negotiations or talks with Iran have actually been a little bit better. Just a tiny little bit, actually.

Werman: I mean, the perceived worry of Iran can also be drawn from just the persona of the individual.
The persona of Obama, the persona of Romney. It was interesting in, I think it was the last debate, where Romney criticized Obama for not going to Israel on his trip through the Middle East in 2009.

Ghoddosi: Yes.

Werman: I’m just wondering how Iranians perceived that comment.

Ghoddosi: Obama, for example, went to Cairo, traveled throughout the Middle East, gave direct messages and direct interviews trying to engage the Iranian youth, especially, and the Iranian public. Romney seems a lot closer to Israel and a lot less inclined to sit at a negotiating table or discuss the possibility of friendship or relations, which might be too much to ask, obviously, with the way the Iranian state is responding to those requests.

Azimi: I don’t really know what an ordinary Iranian in one of the small townships around Iran would make of the whole process, but they typically believe that the United States has the bigger say, no matter who takes the White House, they almost go for the same goals. So, from their point of view, from where they are living, what they see is the foreign policy of the United States. And in the foreign policy it doesn’t make such a big difference.

Ghoddosi: Can I, sorry, just add one comment on that. Obama, or any other President, has never been to Iran, never been interviewed on a State television that millions of Iranians can actually have access to, they’ve never been portrayed on any channel, or a documentary about their lives, or details of their thoughts and beliefs, they’ve never even been given that kind of an opportunity that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been given. Therefore, it is a lot easier for the American public to decide what image, or what take they want to have on the Iranian President, than it is for the Iranians to want to decide on Obama’s personality. After all, Obama has only been able to get in touch with the Iranian people through technology, like Facebook, Twitter, Foreign Office page, satellite channel interview, which is actually heavily filtered and jammed in Iran, anyway. So he really doesn’t have any way of getting in touch with the Iranian people and showing his own opinions, nor does Romney, for that matter.

Werman: Aaron, that was Pooneh Ghoddosi, host at the BBC’s Persian Service, and Amir Azimi, News Editor also with the Persian Service.

Copyright ©2012 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.