Iranian Alert -- December 9, 2003 -- IRAN LIVE THREAD

Persian rugs and pistachios. :)

Perhaps I misspoke?

ping to 20

France and Germany, socialism and appeasement, backward into the past.

Bump Condi Rice upstairs to veep in 2004 and put in Mark Steyn as National Security Advisor.

Then it's hasta la vista Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and North Korea.

Iran - Hope For a Cure in 2004?

December 09, 2003
Babel International
Nicole Sadighi

If Europe wants to help the Iranian people they should realise that the present Islamic regime has done nothing but poison Persia and her people.

February 2004 will see the next parliamentary elections in Iran. Already the municipal elections that took place in February 2003 were significant for the Islamic Republic, in which turnout hit rock bottom - in the capital city Tehran, only 9% of eligible voters did so. This clearly indicates a loss of faith in the Islamic regime and its potential for change, as people have become increasingly frustrated with the reformists’ legacy of broken promises. A fierce struggle has broken out within the reformist camp to prepare themselves for the 2004 parliamentary elections, yet so far they have failed to produce any new ideas that could inspire the electorate.

At the same time they look to their European allies for support, who in recent years have helped them in any and every way one could imagine. However, public opinion has soured against the Europeans as well as against the reformists. If one wants to understand the frustration and negative opinions of the Iranian public with respect to the European Union - in particular Britain, Germany and France – it suffices merely to stroll through the streets of Tehran and listen to people’s complaints. We know that during the last 4 years the European Union has tried everything possible to support the reformist camp in Iran lead by Mohammad Khatami, trying to defuse the chaotic political situation in Iran as well as in the international arena. Nonetheless it has not produced any positive results. The public scepticism is palpable.

Fruitless Efforts

I reflect back on British Foreign Minister Jack Straw’s numerous visits to the Islamic Republic, as well as those by his foreign counterparts, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. The latest and only constructive support has been their efforts to defuse the problem that has arisen from nuclear arms production in Iran and the enrichment of weapons grade uranium. The general assumption in the west, particularly in Europe, is that the reformists are a distinct breed from the conservative camp. Yet it must be emphasised that in Iran the perception is quite the opposite, and that in the eyes of the people there is no difference between the conservatives and reformists: both camps have joined forces in order to prolong the life of Islamic Republic and each camp has a vested interest in doing so.

At the same time the war in Iraq, led by the United States, has created hope amongst the Iranian public. A hope that sooner or later, once the Iraq issue has been resolved, the west will realise how deeply and strongly the Iranian people wish for radical change in Iran, and will therefore help those Iranians who are struggling to restore democracy, freedom, and a secular regime in this ancient land. Both the reformist and the conservative camps in Iran are fully aware of this feeling and have thus set in motion new tactics in order to distract public opinion at home and abroad. They are trying to destabilise Iraq as much as they can with the help of radical Shiites, by facilitating easy cross-border travel for international terrorists in the hope that the US will pull out its forces from Iraq and thus ease the pressure on Iran. The fact that there are troops in all the surrounding Emirates in the South of the Persian Gulf, such as Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar, and in Central Asia and Afghanistan has given Iran’s Mullahs a fearful insecurity and a sense of being trapped in a pincer. Therefore they are trying their utmost to destabilise Iraq and Middle East, including their funding for the radical Palestinian groups who help sabotage the Middle East peace process.

So what next?

In Iran the most dynamic group are the young, who make up approximately 70% of the country’s nearly 70 million population. The regime is fully aware of this fact and has shown their anxiety through heavy-handed repression. One example of such maltreatment was the tragic saga of the 1999 street protests, where hundreds of thousands of students took to the streets in a peaceful show of defiance. Siavash Fakhravar, Ahmad Batebi, Manuchehr and Akbar Mohammadi and many other students were condemned to torture and imprisonment for their involvement in the demonstration.

If the free world, and Europe in particular, want to help the Iranian people restore their freedom then they should reassess their policies, change their attitudes and realise that the present Islamic regime has done nothing but poison Iran and its people.

Nicole Sadighi is a freelance journalist and member of the "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran".

Nicole Sadighi - London - 20.11.2003

http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=A&Id=581

Iraq: Leadership To Expel Iranian Opposition Group

December 09, 2003
Radio Free Europe
RFE/RL

Baghdad -- The U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council today announced it is expelling the Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq, or the People's Mujahedin.

In a statement, the council called the group a "terrorist organization," and said its members will be thrown out of Iraq by the end of the year. The statement said the group's premises will be shut down and its assets frozen.

Some members of the People's Mujahedin surrendered to invading U.S. forces earlier this year, and are being held in camps in northern Iraq. The group was allowed to operate in Iraq under the regime of deposed President Saddam Hussein.

http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/12/09122003171311.asp

"MATERISALISATION OF DEMOCRACY IN IRAN IS OUR TASK":
SHIRIN EBADI

By an IPS Correspondent

OSLO, 9 Dec. (IPS)

"The struggle of Iranian women for their rights has started long, longtime ago and this award would strengthen this effort, helping Muslim women all over the world to get their rights as well", Mrs. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for 2003 said in a press conference in Oslo on Tuesday.

While reiterating that there is no incompatibility between Islam and other civilizations, yet she admitted that Muslim women were subject to discrimination "in few fields" that she did not specified.

Since she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October, she has been vindicated by some Iranian radical clerics inside the country, accusing the Norwegian judges of the Nobel Academy to have acted under pressures from the United States and Zionist circles.

Pressure groups controlled by the ruling Iranian conservatives have sent her death threats and disrupted last week a conference she was to give at a Tehran university, calling her "hypocrite" and "the sweet love of (American President George W.) Bush, who has labeled the Islamic Republic as a "rogue State" alongside of Communist North Korea and Iraq under the now toppled Saddam Hoseyn.

Even President Mohammad Khatami, described routinely in the Western press as "moderate" belittled the decision, saying that the Nobel Peace award "was not important".

At the same time, leftist groups outside Iran denounced the Academy’s official statement to bestow the Prize to a "a Muslim Iranian woman" arguing that the remark contradicted equality of sexes, human rights, secularism and democracy, principles that are opposed by Islam.

"This award bestowed to an Iranian and a Muslim women has another message: That Islam is compatible with other civilization, but if an innocent is killed in the name of Islam, be sure that one has abused of the religion", she told in answer of an Iranian female correspondent arguing that Islam does not respect equal rights of women and is not compatible with democracy and human rights.

"We shall not allow that innocent people be killed or human rights principles be violated in the name of Islam", she said as some hundreds Iranians opposed to the Islamic Republic were demonstrating outside the conference room.

In an "alternative" press conference held at the same time by the Iranian Communist Workers Party, speakers gave chilly details of the thousands of "innocent" Iranian political activists murdered in Iran in the name of Islam.

Offering her award to all women, but particularly to Iranian and Muslim women, she repeated her hopes to see the Prize she obtained would help promoting the values of human rights world over.

Though she escaped political questions raised by Western journalists, with few of them knowing exactly where Iran was located on the world map, repeating that she was not a "politic", she nevertheless rejected attacking of other countries in "whatever name or pretext.

"Democracy can be realized with peace, calm and serenity, not with violence and war. It’s materialisation is the task of the people and should not be used to attack other countries", she said, adding that however that "the support of international opinion and the United Nations would help", a veiled reference to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.

"If the peace sought by me and the peace sought by you is in conflict, then there is no peace at all", she said.

Asked how the international community should pressure the Iranian clerical rulers to embrace democracy and human rights, she said immediately that this was

"a national and patriotic duty of ours".

The 56 years-old lawyer and human rights campaigner who had been jailed for two weeks tow years ago will receive her Prize, a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque worth 10 million Swedish kronor (1.12 million euros, 1.36 million dollars) at a formal ceremony at Oslo City Hall on Wednesday.

ENDS EBADI OSLO 91203

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2003/Dec-2003/ebadi_oslo_91203.htm

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