N Korea, Hamas To Train Iran In Oppression Of Own People As Leverage

The two nations offer vastly different models for oppression of one’s own as an international political tool.

Pyongyang, January 7 – As tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia heat up, leaders in Teheran have sent delegations to the Gaza Strip and North Korea to learn how to improve the government’s skills at subjecting its own citizenry to abuse and deprivation as a tool in international relations.

Iran possesses a larger and better-developed navy than the house of Saud, but by any other measure, the peninsular kingdom outweighs Iran in military and economic clout, and can inflict considerable economic damage on the Islamic Republic if it chooses to do so. In the face of such a superior foe, the Ayatollahs now seek vehicles for leverage that do not depend on economic or military development, but instead use the misfortune of its own people that would result from such measures as a weapon. The leaders in such strategies globally have been the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, and North Korea, which is already under such severe economic sanctions that the international community has no further methods to bear against its unlawful nuclear weapons program.

Experts note that the two nations offer vastly different models for oppression of one’s own as an international political tool. “North Korea violates its residents’ human and civil rights, including subjecting them to the risk of mass starvation, then uses the imminent danger of those poor North Koreans’ starvation as a bargaining chip in negotiations for sanctions relief,” explained Foreign Policy magazine editor Stanley Spidowski. “Whereas Hamas merely places its own populace in harm’s way and provokes others to act in ways that will harm them. Both approaches have utility for Iran if a real confrontation with the Saudis materializes.”

Spidowski also noted that Tehran is not exactly inexperienced in the abuse of its citizens. “The question is not so much how to oppress – that the mullahs have down to an art form. What they seek most at this point is transforming such oppression and suffering from a domestic tool of stifling dissent into a cudgel that can be wielded against other nations,” he added.

Historian Harvey Bilchik said that the phenomenon of using the stifling of dissent as a tool of international relations is not new. “The Soviet Union used to tighten the screws on dissidents and then offer to loosen them in exchange for concessions from the West,” he recalled. “What’s new here is the scale. North Korea’s population is about 25 million, but Iran has three times that, and much longer, more porous borders. If they can pull this off, it will be impressive.”