Iranian Alert - May 12, 2005 - Blair backs referring Iran to U.N.

Blair Backs Referring Iran to U.N.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he would support Iran being referred to the U.N. Security Council if Tehran breached its nuclear obligations.

"We certainly will support referral to the U.N. Security Council if Iran breaches its undertaking and obligations," Blair said Thursday at his first news conference since his Labour Party won a historic third term in last week's elections.

Iran has said it would resume some uranium reprocessing activities that Washington and the European Union fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog expects Iran to deliver a letter as early as Thursday announcing it will resume such activities, a Western diplomat told Reuters.

Meanwhile, France, Britain and Germany have warned Iran they will break off talks and join Washington in seeking U.N. action if Tehran makes good on its threats to resume the activities, diplomats said.

In a letter to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany warned that resuming potentially arms-related nuclear work "would bring the negotiating process to an end," an EU diplomat quoted the letter as saying.

Blair said Britain was committed to the diplomatic process.

"Nobody is talking about invasions of Iran or military action against Iran. We have to make sure that this diplomatic process works, and we will fight very hard to do that," he said.

"There is no point in speculating

what happens down the line if you reach an impasse. But there is a lot of processes that have to be gone through before you are at that point, not least the Security Council."

Hosting his monthly press conference in Downing Street, Blair also faced questions about how long he intends to remain in office. ...

A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran:

Iran va Jahan argues that for Iran, regime change is the only option.
The Financial Times claims that with Iran threatening to raise the stakes in their twin nuclear stand-offs, the Bush administration is reassessing its options.
Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today about a court summons received on 8 May by journalist Emadoldin Baghi, who has already been imprisoned several times.
Forward complains that the story of the Iranian people's daily struggles is increasingly buried by the media.
The Washington Post reports that European officials notified Iran for the first time yesterday that they will walk away from two years of talks and sign on to a Bush administration strategy.
The New York Times reports that European nations may call an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency next week to act against Iran if it resumes some nuclear activities.
Tehran Times reports that Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rowhani said,"Gaining access to nuclear technology is a national demand and therefore no government in Iran is able to forgo this right."
The American Thinker has recommendations for Karen Hughes on how to succeed in revamping the U.S.'s public image in the Middle East.
And finally, The Washington Post asks in response to Iran's threatening to restart its suspended uranium enrichment program, "Does the United States -- or Israel -- have a military option?"

Iran: Cleric Laments Arab Invasions

May 12, 2005

by Potkin Azarmehr

If this letter by the Shiite cleric Hadi Ma'ssumi published on the iran-chabar site is true then this is just mega explosive:

The letter to Rafsanjani is written by a Karaj based cleric. He says in the letter that he is ill and near death, so presumably that is what has given him the extra ordinary courage needed to write this letter.

If this letter was from an exiled opposition, it would not have been so controversial but to read this sort of thing from a Shiite cleric is truly remarkable.

In the letter, the cleric Hadi Ma'ssumi starts from the beginning of Islam in Iran. How the religion was forced upon Iranians, how the invading Arabs raped the Iranian women, massacred the population, looted our wealth, tried to run the windmills with the blood of Iranians and how they burned all our books and destroyed so much of our knowledge.

He then starts scrutinising 26 years of Rafsanjani's unrelentless power. He reminds Rafsanjani of what went on in Iran's political prisons in the 80s. How young virgin girls were raped before their executions using Koranic justifications - virgin girls go to heaven no matter what, so young female political activists were raped to ensure they didn't go to heaven - how thousands suffered torture and the massacre of Iranian political prisoners in 1988.

The many extra-judicial killings of Iranian dissidents both inside Iran and outside Iran.

"Ayatollah Rafsnajani, you know how murder, kidnapping and torture has become synonymous with your name" Ma'assumi writes in his letter.

Hadi Ma'ssumi asks about Rafsanjani's close relationship with the likes of Saeed Emami, responsible for murder of dissidents inside Iran and Vahid Gorji who is responsible for many assassinations of Iranian exiles outside Iran.

Ma'ssumi recalls how Rafsanjani unnecassarily prolonged the war with Iraq, casuing the death and injuries to millions and how he himself hugely profitted from the war instead.

Ma'ssumi asks Rafsanjani to comment on the imprisonment of many of Iran's dissidents today. What he thinks of stoning, public flogging, cutting limbs and forcing women to wear the veil.

He asks Rafsanjani why women in Iran are forced to wear the veil in summer heat and yet Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh dresses up in skimpy clothing when she travels through European cities of Paris, London and Geneva.

Even perhaps all this is not that controversial, there are after all many Iranian clerics who oppose the Islamic Republic and the rule of mullahs. But just read this below. This is an exact translation of one paragraph of an elderly Shiite cleric's statement on his death bed:

"You know like I do what lies behind this religion (Islam), after all this crime carried out against Iranians. lets do one good thing and tell the people what is behind this religion. Lets tell everyonel that this religion is neither "martyr generating", nor pro-science nor pro the people, this religion tells the elite that it is for the plebs and it tells the plebs that it is for the elite, it tells the elite that all its silly laws are for the stupid plebs, in fact this religion is "ignorance generator". It has come about to humiliate people. As you (Rafsanjani) once told me, it is one religion for the elite and another for the plebs. You rightly regard yourself, the supreme leader and your Guardian Council as the elite, and the "martyr generating" nation of Iran are the plebs. Now for the sake of God tell the truth to the people that there is nothing in this religion but stupidity and ignorance, other than silly laws about what is considered clean and what is untouchable, what is allowed and what is not allowed, believe me that God and the people will then forgive you, although I know you are conscious enough NOT to believe in God!"

Potkin Azarmehr

Potkin Azarmehr is a database consultant and an Iranian ex-patriot. He writes: "In my late teens when the mullahs came to power in Iran. Just a year later, the mullahs decided to have their own "cultural revolution", i.e. sack all the non-Islamic students and academics and create a new Islamic syllabus. Iran’s universities were closed and Iran did not produce any graduates for two years. During this time the mullahs gave three days warning for the non-Islamic elements to evacuate universities. I along with some of my friends went to defend the universities. During the three days warning there were minor clashes with the hired thugs, but on the final day, the onslaught was beyond all our expectations. Sixteen people died throughout Iran on that night. I managed to escape with just a few cuts and bruises, but one of my school friends, was amongst the thousands who were arrested that night. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison. In the 8th year of his sentence he was executed during the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. I ended up leaving Iran for England where I joined Dr. Shapur Bakhtiar’s organisation. Dr. Bakhtiar was an Iranian nationalist and a secular politician, who warned the Iranian people against the dictatorship of the mullahs during the mass frenzy of 1979. Dr. Bakhtiar was assassinated in Paris with the collusion of the Miterand Socialist government and the Islamic Republic’s death squads. Since then I have been active in the Iranian pro-democracy movement, supporting the cause of democracy, secularism and nationalism in Iran."

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Blair Backs Referring Iran to U.N.

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