Winston Churchill said that Russia “is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
The Tehran “espionage” trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian is now something of the sort.
It’s nearly a month since the most recent, closed court proceeding in his trial. That’s all anybody knows. So goes Iran’s Revolutionary Court. Silence and ambiguity prevail.
Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and New York-based Iranian expert Hooman Majd both said Monday that they have no news on Rezaian.
Majd is in Vienna monitoring the ongoing negotiations over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Several deadlines have come and gone in those closely-watched talks, which are now expected to reach some conclusion later this week as Secretary of State John Kerry leads the U.S. bargaining team.
There had been speculation that perhaps Rezaian’s ordeal would be intertwined with those talks. The notion was that perhaps the journalist would become a small bargaining chip in the much larger international tussle.
But that remains total speculation.
As Majd emailed from Vienna on Monday, “Nothing.”
Nobody really has a clue.
