WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is considering a more aggressive effort to foster opposition inside Iran and seeking ways to use a new $3-million fund to support activists without exposing them to the risk of arrest.
The approach would represent a change since President Bush's first term, when the administration was more wary of such potentially dangerous moves, officials said.
"We can now be much more aggressive [about Iran] than we had been," a senior official said, hailing the arrival of Condoleezza Rice at the State Department as invigorating the president's push for democracy.
"The guys at the State Department were too afraid to try anything during the first term," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They were extremely cautious about angering the regime in Tehran."
The more aggressive approach is being considered even while Bush moves toward supporting a plan created by France, Germany and Britain to offer Iran economic incentives to forgo nuclear weapons. Bush discussed the issue with Rice on Thursday.
Iran contends that its nuclear energy program is peaceful, but U.S. and European officials have charged that it may be reserving a nuclear weapons option.
Among the proposals being floated by some inside and outside government is one to fund activists in Iran who want to start opposition parties and labor unions, or people who are able to travel in and out of the country. Also under consideration is increasing funding for pro-democracy broadcasts.
The question of how to implement Bush's inaugural pledge to spread freedom has taken on urgency since Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) added $3 million to a recently approved spending bill specifically to promote democracy in Iran. Officials are weighing ideas for the money, a State Department official said.
"There are some that want to engage in a more confrontational democratization effort within Iran," he said.
The counterargument is that giving U.S. funds to reformers may doom them, the official said, because they risk being discredited by their association with the nation the Iranian regime calls the Great Satan and would probably be targeted by the police.
The State Department is looking for "appropriate opportunities" to spend money inside and outside Iran, a second official said. Reflecting the debate within the administration, the second official argued that no funds would be spent to directly support political parties or labor unions, something the United States rarely, if ever, does.
