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Sanctions are no solution says solidarity organisation
The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR) toady condemned the EU move to impose sanctions upon the Islamic Republic of Iran as effectively a declaration of war upon the Iranian people. The organisation, which has campaigned for thirty years against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic, has been a prominent voice in insisting that dialogue is the only way forward in the current crisis. The sanctions imposed by the EU are seen as a provocative escalation of an already unstable situation which could be a precursor to military intervention by the West. CODIR Assistant General Secretary, Jamshid Ahmadi, made clear the position of human rights and peace organisations in relation to Iran stating,
"We condemn the Iranian regime for its human rights violations, its ongoing repression of religious minorities and the regime's persecution of human rights activists. However, embargoing Iranian oil through the de-facto ban on trade with Iran 's central bank ultimately has a negative impact upon the ordinary people of Iran ." ...more
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EU sabre-rattling on Iran to hit population, not regime
EU sanctions against Iran are politically naive, negligent sabre-rattling according to GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst speaking ahead of today's European Parliament vote on a resolution on Iran's nuclear programme. "We condemn the Iranian regime for its catastrophic human rights violations, repression of religious minorities and persecution of human rights activists but embargoing Iranian oil through the de-facto ban on trade with Iran 's central bank ultimately just impacts the population." "This is also a boost for the Iranian regime in advance of the elections in March when there is still no proof of a nuclear weapons programme, just secret service suspicions and allegations. We need the escalation of human rights dialogue and serious negotiations for a nuclear-free Middle East . This is the task of the EU, not the aggravation of the current situation" she said. ...more
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Iran's Feeling the Effects of Isolation
The people's sufferings are spreading dangerously. The effects of sanctions and embargos are mostly felt by the common people. Ahmadinejad's government pursues the same policies despite the West's injunctions. From our special correspondent in Tehran. In Tehran's great bazaar, crawling and majestic as ever, just as in the one in Tajrich on the mountainside, a foreigner will meet with friendly smiles and fraternal signs. But the shock comes right after, on finding that there is not one Western traveller, just a very few Africans, or Chinese. In two years everything has changed. Also troubling in the side-streets are beggars holding out their hands, and fugitive vendors in the oh-so- stylish underground. Iran, where it is now impossible to fly non-stop owing to the embargo on kerosene against Iran Air Company, is on the list of unsafe destinations. The French Foreign Affairs ministry has issued a communique warning that it was dangerous to visit Persia. So the war has already started, a "psychological war", and an ill-advised one, against a state whose leaders supported a demonstration against the United Kingdom outside the UK embassy where British flags were burnt. ...more
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IRAN: WAVE OF ARRESTS IN RUN UP TO PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
Amnesty International is concerned that an ongoing wave of arrests of media workers and bloggers is intended to limit freedom of expression in the run up to parliamentary elections in Iran scheduled for 2 March 2012.The arrests indicate that the Iranian authorities are once again choosing to restrict freedom of expression and association in an apparent attempt to disrupt public discourse and potential criticism of the authorities' record in various spheres including human rights and economic performance in advance of the start of the election campaign.
Amnesty International is urging the authorities to release all those detained in recent weeks unless they are promptly charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards.The organization said that the Judiciary in Iran should make it clear that everyone in Iran has the right to freely express their views, including in connection to the forthcoming elections and that restrictions and arrests of this kind violate Iran's international human rights obligations regarding the peaceful exercise of the rights of expression, association or assembly...more
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Press release: Solidarity organisation calls for a halt to the slide to war
The ongoing killing of Iranian scientists has been condemned as a provocation to war by a leading solidarity organisation campaigning for peace in the Middle East. The Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR) last week pointed out that the assassination of 32 year old chemist, Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, was the fifth time a scientist associated with Iran's nuclear programme had been killed in the past two years.
CODIR claims that if such actions had taken place on US or British soil they would have been seen as tantamount to a declaration of war. CODIR has warned that there are elements within the Iranian regime which will see these actions in the same way and may foolishly and disastrously respond accordingly.
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Escalating conflict with Iran could spur disastrous war
With 10 days of naval exercises by Iran having just been completed, including the testing of long-range ballistic missiles, the naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, has announced further activities next month. Fadavi has said that the drill in February will be "different compared to previous exercises held by the IRGC".
The exercises, coupled with the warning that Iran could close the strait of Hormuz, the narrowest point in the Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes, has now encouraged the United States and Israel to announce that they are to carry out extensive joint maneuvers in the region. The U.S. and UK have said they will act to keep the shipping lanes open. Philip Hammond, the British defense secretary, said during a visit to Washington: "Disruption to the flow of oil through the strait of Hormuz would threaten regional and global economic growth. Any attempt by Iran to close the strait would be illegal and unsuccessful." ...more
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They Were Not Allowed to Even Say Goodbye
In an exclusive interview with Rooz, human rights activist Asieh Amini who has been involved in gathering information about secret executions in Mashhad's Vakilabad prison, announced, "Many executed prisoners (in Vakilabad) learned of their fate just a few hours before being executed and were not allowed to say goodbye to their family members." Just two months after the secretary of Iran's human rights committee and the advisor to the head of the judiciary told reporters in New York that "No secret executions take place in Iran," the International Campaign on Human Rights in Iran, including some Iranian human rights activists, published the details of the execution of 101 prisoners in secret in Vakilabad. At the same time, Catherine Ashton, the representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy, expressed her deep concern about the growing number of executions in Iran and called for their suspension, including the sentence on Sakineh Ashtiani. ...more
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Political Prisoner Issa Saharkhiz Hospitalized in Tehran
Journalist and political activist Issa Saharkhiz has been at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran since 14 December 2011, a source close to his family told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. The source added that the political prisoner's family is under immense pressure not to give interviews to foreign media. "Everyone tried to keep the news about his hospitalization a secret, lest he be transferred back to prison," the source said. "All his kin are keeping silent, hoping that he receives his needed medical care before he is returned to prison."
Issa Saharkhiz, a journalist and the former head of the Ministry of Culture and Guidance's Domestic Press in the Khatami cabinet, was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election. Security forces assaulted Saharkhiz during his arrest, breaking his ribs. ...more
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Season's Greetings!
With best wishes from CODIR for peace, democracy, human rights and social justice in every country of the world!Let's make 2012 the year of International solidarity with the struggle of the Iranian people for peace, freedom and democracy. |
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International Solidarity with the Struggle of the Iranian People for Peace and Progress!
In an unprecedented development, leaders of 72 Communist and Workers' parties meeting in Athens for their 13th annual conference adopted a statement in opposition to US and EU threats against Iran. The sponsoring parties of the statement, which include influential Communist parties such as those from Cuba, South Africa, the Russian Federation, Brazil, India and Cyprus, condemned the jingoistic propaganda emanating from the US, EU and Israeli administrations and expressed their "serious concern about future developments in relation to Iran". ...more
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Iran: Surge of secret executions for drug offences must end
In the 44-page Addicted to Death: Executions for Drug Offences in Iran, the organisation finds that at least 488 people have been executed for alleged drug offences so far in 2011, a nearly threefold increase on the 2009 figures, when Amnesty International recorded at least 166 executions for similar offences. In total Amnesty International has recorded some 600 executions reported by both official and unofficial sources this year, with drug offences accounting for about 81% of the total. The organisation called on the Iranian authorities to end the use of the death penalty against those accused of drug offences. ...more
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Ebrahim Madadi Re-Arrested Today
The ITUC was dismayed and incensed to hear today that Ebrahim Madadi, a courageous trade unionist and Comrade from Vahed Syndicate in Tehran, was re-arrested today after being freed only last Thursday. A move welcomed by the international trade union movement. ITUC General Secretary, Sharan Burrow, said :"this can only be interpreted as yet another crass and cynical move by the authorities to distract attention from the serious violations of trade union rights in Iran immediately prior to the ILO Regional Asia Pacific Conference which just concluded in Kyoto". ...more
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