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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran: Civil Society Alarmed Over Un Security Council Referral |
| 2006-03-12 |
| Prominent Iranian journalists, economists and human rights actvists, including Nobel peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, are expressing growing concern over the country's plunging international reputation over the nuclear dispute. Together with many other Iranians, most dissenting voices from Iran's civil society support what they see as the country's right to nuclear technology, but they say that the Islamic Republic's autocratic government lacks credibility to argue the case. "I'm convinced that the Iranian nuclear programme doesn't represent any threat to the world, and I urge the government to do everything possible to convince the international community that its intentions are peaceful, says Ebadi. But she has no illusions about the tough task facing Tehran. "If the world doesn't believe the words of Iran's representatives, the blame for this must go to the non-democratic nature of the regime that governs the country," she adds. Her view is shared by opposition political activist Khosrow Seif. "Possessing nuclear technology is a right which has to be recognised to all the nations of the world, but it is not surprising that the international community does not trust an anti-democratic regime like the Iranian one," he says. Seif also dismissed a possible compromise solution by which Russia would assist Iran with uranium enrichment the controversial process that Tehran's critics say is part of a covert nuclear weapons programme. "If the only option given to us by the world at this moment in time is having our uranium enriched at Russian facilities, then it would be wiser for us to suspend the nuclear programme altogether," he says. "The price that Iranians have to pay for their nuclear programme is way too high and it's just not worth it," says political analyst Mashaollah Shameslvaezin, whos is also the spokesman for the Free Press Association of Iran. "With the [UN] Security Council yet to convene and sanctions still only a remote possibility, the government is already pressurising newspaper editors, sending them a 'manual' of what they may or may not publish," Shameslvaezin explains. "We don't even want to think what will happen once the Security Council starts examing Iran's case. Then we'll lose even those small crumbs of freedom we still have." According to economist and university professor Sadegh Zibakalam, the current "disastrous" situation may yet turn "tragic". "The nuclear crisis has already claimed a vicitm: civil liberties in Iran. Sanctions would destroy the country's economy, bolstering the radicals, because during a state of emergency power lies in the hands of the military, the militias and the security forces," he warns |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #1 They really don't get it do the? "If the world doesn't believe the words of Iran's representatives..." BUT WE DO BELIEVE YOU. We believe you when you say that you will Nuke Israel, we believe you when you say that the US is the Great Satan, we believe you whey you say that you've been playing the EU for the suckers they are....... Got to think that Ostriches would be really rich if they had patented the head in the sand approach. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2006-03-12 09:00 |