Monday, November 19, 2007

Growing Anti-War Sentiments in Iran

Iran's Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi today called on the Iranian government to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and urged all Iranians to support a national campaign aimed at preventing a military conflict with the US.

“The drum beat of war can be heard very loudly,” Ebadi told a peace and human rights conference in Tehran. “Iran should respect UN Security Council resolutions and it means suspending uranium enrichment and resolving the dispute through talks.”

Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and the leader of Iran’s Freedom Movement, also attending the peace conference in Tehran, said the government should consider people’s will and avoid a war.

“Enrichment is not a matter of national security for Iran,” said Yazdi. “We should mobilize people against the war and put pressure on the government to change its nuclear policy… By suspending enrichment, we can avoid war.”

Ebadi’s call for a “national peace campaign” is the boldest move yet inside Iran to force the government to abandon its confrontationist nuclear policies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

FURTHER EXPOSITION (QUESTIONING ANGELS)

The drums are beating, now to maim
And kill such citizens
Iranian, because some claim
Our rulers send forth hence:

That they strive to attack us with
A bomb enriched atomic--
Yet so Iraq´s bombs proved a myth
Clear allegations gnomic.

Lord God, before I raise a finger
Of malice toward my brother
In lands Iranian, be bringer
Thou bombs my life to smother.

For I would rather innocent
Of senseless splattered blood
Go to my death, as Christ too went,
Though men have called it good

To act aggressive, to preempt
Some fanciful disaster:
I pray thee, Lord, though Satan tempt
That I may call thee Master.

Today these most vociferous
Of self-proclaiming Christians
Remain hardly splendiferous:
The angels too have questions.