ROXANA SABERI, EVIDENCE OF IRAN'S UNCLENCHING FIST?

A recalcitrant Iran dealt the world and United States of America a blow with the incarceration of the Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi. When the whole world is warming up to the new administration in Washington with a view to starting afresh, Iran is walking away into the cold? Icheoku says, this is not the kind of overture a willing peace partner exhibits.

Why should the Iranian regime continue to present a clenched fist when a hand of fellowship has been extended to it by Washington? Even Venezuela's Hugo Chavez understands that it is a new day and things are no longer what they use to be! With the firm handshake between President Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez, one would have expected the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime in Tehran to act in this case, in a way suggestive of a regime desirous to press the reset button with the United States? But no, they jailed a reporter for allegedly spying, after a trial in camera?

Icheoku says, admitted it is hard to teach an old dog a new trick but the henchmen in Tehran should understand that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. They ought to know that the hand of friendship extended by America will not hang out there in perpetuity, should they refuse and not take it now. There is always a span of life for everything as President Barack Obama might not forever retain the support and goodwill of the American people to continue to woo an unwilling suitor? Iranians, show President Obama that there is reason to hope and try, otherwise the America patient might run out and pretty soon too? The Iranians should be very much aware that, should the inevitable occurs and their obstinacy results in a show-down, that they cannot win the ensuing antagonism or confrontation.

Icheoku says, the proper thing for Iran to do in the spirit of the new quest for friendship with Washington, is not to convict Miss Saberi behind closed doors as the apparent lack of transparency defeats whatever evidence of culpability that may exist. Justice they say, must not only be done but must be seen to be done; and such was not the case under the present advisement. Because of the bamboozled nature of the trial, any resulting sentence should not have been as harsh as eight long years for a young Iranian woman whose future has been greatly compromised by this sentence, assuming she serves it in full. Other alternatives exists for the Iranians which they would have exercised, such as deport Miss Saberi back to the United States, declare Miss Saberi a persona-non-grata in Iran, revoke her Iranian passport, denude her of her Iranian citizenship or to clear all the cloud of illegitimacy hanging over this conviction, conduct her trial in the open so that the world can appreciate the degree of her "covet operations" in Iran? But to simply rail-road her into prison on a trumped-up charge of espionage smacks of a regime which is not prepared to change its repressive ways; or for lack of a better word, smarting for confrontation? As a wise counsel posits, the Iranian regime should beware of what they wish for as they might eventually get it?

Roxana Saberi, 31, who shares dual American and Iranian citizenship (daughter of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother), has been studying for her third masters degree and working in Iran for the past six years. The also former Miss North Dakota and a top 10 finalists in Miss America 1998 was arrested in January 2009 for allegedly spying for her naturalised country, the United States of America? Now the Iranians have jailed their daughter for eight long years after convicting her for espionage, in a trial held behind closed doors by Iran's Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court? A trial that could at most, be characterised as a kangaroo trial? It is regrettable that whatever evidence of the alleged espionage was not made public for veracity, despite a possible claim of state security and secrecy? Such was the secrecy of Roxana Saberi's trial that not even her father was allowed to attend his daughter's trial? And this is justice?

Iranians shifting of the goal-post from the initial accusation of buying alcohol and later of working as a journalist without a valid press card to the final whammy of spying, shows a regime fishing for a reason and desirous of making a confrontational statement? Icheoku says, such attitudinal idiosyncrasy of the Iranian government is unwholesome and simply reflective of a warped doomsday-harbinger, that is both daft and dumb! Iranians should understand that friendship requires sacrifice in the spirit of give and take, geared towards meeting of the minds which their current action does not buttress. It is with this background that Icheoku calls on Iranian government to use this God given opportunity to soften its image and release Roxana Saberi forthwith. The Iranians can ask Miss Saberi to leave Iran if they feel so impassioned, but to imprison this woman for eight long gruelling years, with no apparent convincing evidence of her complicity in an espionage, is not a cordial move especially at this time of a thawing of relations between Tehran and Washington!