CAIRO AND TEHRAN — International intrigue, a hunger strike and the motives of a teary-eyed boyfriend conspire in the tale of jailed American journalist Roxana Saberi. That this is unfolding in an Iran humming with political ploys and the whir of nuclear centrifuges makes it all the more tantalizing.
Saberi is in Tehran's Evin Prison, sentenced to eight years on charges of spying for U.S. intelligence services -- an accusation she denies. Her father, Reza, says the 32-year-old freelancer, who worked for the BBC and National Public Radio, has refused food since last week. He says his daughter is "very weak" and drinking only sweetened liquids.
The judge in Saberi's case, Hassan Haddad, says the hunger strike is a propaganda ruse to evoke worldwide sympathy and complicate the legal with the political. Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying, "She is in good physical condition and not on a hunger strike."
Somebody's not telling the truth. The truth in Iran is often layered in mellifluous rhetoric so finely parsed that it's difficult to discern. It is a game of contradictory images and inscrutable subtext. The Saberi case is no different. Characters have slipped into larger roles; the trial of a reporter has become the latest pirouette in the unsettling diplomatic dance between Washington and Tehran.
But for all the headlines, commentary and curious moves of Iran's internal politics, there is an air of predictability.
The Obama administration has been making efforts at reconciliation with Tehran. This overture, though appealing to Iranian moderates, has threatened hard-liners who probably believe that rapprochement with Iran's great enemy may undermine their power. Take away America, the boogeyman, and Iranians would be more likely to focus on their leaders' foibles. If that happens, more attention may have to be paid to inflation, unemployment, corruption and other problems that have marred Iran for years.
Saberi, in a sense, is caught in the battle between hard-liners and reformers -- a struggle that may chart how much, if at all, the Islamic Republic opens to the West and defuses concerns about its nuclear program and strategic gambits across the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Optimism sidles close to havoc. What's not predictable, though, is who will win.
