Source:  Centre for Development Policy and Research, SOAS Number 39, Oct 2009

Elaheh Rostami-Povey,  London Middle East Institute and Centre for Gender Studies,  SOAS

The recent uprising in Iran, which started in the summer of 2009, has raised a number of major issues for debate in the international media and among politicians, academics and activists. This Development Viewpoint discusses the background to the uprising, its social composition and demands, and its implication for Iran and the region. In the process, it seeks to dispel some of the prevailing misconceptions about the nature of this mass movement.

The Background

Most analysts in the West portray Iran as a religiously conservative country, ignoring its momentous socio-economic transformations since the 1979 revolution. Especially during the 1990s and until today, Iran has undergone massive changes and has achieved substantial progress in human development.

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Hans Blix

9th Oct Guardian

The possibility that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon and the reality that it is building a capability for enriching uranium continue to raise tensions in the Middle East and could push other countries in the region to move in the same direction. In my view the issue of nuclear weapons is not really of great importance for today’s negotiations. After all, even if there were no such ambition now, Iran could change its mind next year and would then have come closer to a weapon by the progress made in the enrichment programme.

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Juan Cole     Oct 1st      Informed Comment

Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US

Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of “no first strike.” This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.

Reality: Iran’s military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.

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Naz Massoumi / 28th Sept 2009

Anticipation in the upcoming Geneva talks on Oct 1st (where Iran will meet the six world powers) turned slightly sour last week when Iran was found to have been in breach of its nuclear obligations by the building of a new “secret” nuclear facility in Qom. Out came the headlines: Obama declared; Brown grunted; Sarkozy fumed; Millaband squealed. Iran, they all said, is again “failing to comply”.

It doesn’t matter of course that under the Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards agreement Iran is required to report the building of a new nuclear facility to the IAEA only 6 months before it is to become operational and that by doing this 18 months in advance Iran had in fact done so one year earlier than required.  Or that, despite what we are told, Iran continues to be fully compliant with the NPT unlike the US and Britain (whose massive arsenals are the ones in breach) or Israel, the only atomic state in the region, who is not even a signatory.  Sadly we’re used to this outright hypocrisy – highlighted by the anti-war movement and Campaign Iran from day 1 – being happily ignored by the Western media.

What’s really behind all this is the US attempt, with British support, to put pressure on Iran in the run-up to the Geneva meeting. By continuing Bush’s imperial project in the Middle East, Obama has also adopted its problems. Iran extended its influence in the region as a consequence of the catastrophic US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The head ache for Washington was that  Iran acted in its own national interests and not necessarily in the interests of the US. But with US imperialism in such a mess, even the Bush administration was forced to rule out a military attack on Iran to wrestle control.  Now Obama wants to bring Iran into line but he will first attempt to do so through US global political and economic power (of course he is not ruling out military intervention down the line). That means tougher sanctions on Iran though bringing them will be difficult for the US as Simon Tisdall has shown. The media  irresponsibly has confused the Iranian missile tests, a bit of muscle-flexing in response, with Iran’s nuclear programme knowing full well that even the CIA has ruled out an Iranian nuclear weapons programme.

Nevertheless it must be said any further sanctions will still have an impact – not on the Iranian government’s decision to continue its nuclear programme because this is supported nationally. Instead, it will more than likely increase the economic hardship of ordinary Iranians and put renewed pressure on the civil society opposition movement which demonstrated its huge potential in Iran’s cities this summer.

That is why leading activists of this movement have been, and continue to be, strongly opposed to economic sanctions. And that is also why we must support them by continuing our campaign to lift sanctions and against our governments complicity in imposing them.

Simon Tisdall / 29 Sept 09 / Guardian

Despite strong words from Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, there is no sign of a consensus on what additional sanctions should or could be imposed by the international community if Iran continues to ignore concerns about its suspect nuclear programmes. Tehran is meanwhile busy taking pre-emptive measures to mitigate any UN or unilateral punishment, despatching diplomatic missions to China, central Asia and Venezuela and stockpiling petrol and gas in case of winter shortages.

The option preferred by many in the US Congress – a ban on exports to Iran of refined fuel products including petrol – looks like a non-starter. Iran is seen as vulnerable on this front since it imports 40% of its gasoline. But it has the world’s second largest proven crude oil reserves and China is the world’s second largest crude oil importer. For American hawks this is a marriage made in hell. But no divorce is in prospect.

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Monday, 28 September 2009

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown    Independent

On Thursday the US, China, Britain, France, Russia and Germany meet in Geneva and, by that time, Iran will be expected to submit to international scrutiny. As a supporter of the now crushed and broken reformers in Iran, I back the ultimatum to the fanatic and bellicose Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But what about that camel in the room? The one we all see but can’t point out? What about the only power in the Middle East, also fanatic and aggressive, which has a vast stockpile of weapons enough to obliterate the region? Listen people, we need to talk about Israel. And soon. Like now.

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source: CASMII

Human beings are members of a whole,

In creation of one essence and soul.

If one member is afflicted with pain,

Other members uneasy will remain.

If you have no sympathy for human pain,

The name of human you cannot retain.

–A poem by the Persian poet Sa’adi (1210 – 1290)

gracing the entrance of the Hall of Nations

   of the United Nations building in New York City

If we speak out against the threat of force against Iran (regarding the nuclear conflict) and warn against a military strike, we cannot be silent on the use of force in Iran itself against its own civil society. For solidarity with the civil society and a peaceful order in the region constitute the primary concern of our efforts. If we condemn foreign sanctions against the Iranian people, we deplore all the more domestic sanctions directed at peaceful demonstrators, journalists, trade unionists, professors, students and others. Thereby the government deprives itself from the domestic basis needed against foreign threats.

Not only as individuals but also conjointly as a group of engaged scholars, we want to announce our resolute protest against the brutal clampdown of demonstrators and against the mass arrests, and strongly advise a peaceful dialogue with the civil society. We call upon the government to release all political prisoners of the last few weeks – amongst them many professors – and to seek dialogue with precisely those persons as moderators of the civil society. Freedom of opinion and the right to demonstrate – cornerstones of the UN Charter of Human Rights to which Iran is a signatory – are being massively violated in today’s Iran.

We strongly remind that the state of siege and the continuing threat of force that have emanated from foreign governments once again fatally demonstrate how thereby the space for a democratic development in Iran are being reduced.

At the same time, we deplore the slanted and misleading depictions of the recent events in Iran in some international media. As supporters of the Iranian civil society, we stress the genuine nature of the protests by the Iranian democracy movement. Composed of various societal strata, the demonstrators first and foremost have advocated free elections and freedom of expression.

Also, it is astonishing that precisely those who have supported crippling sanctions and pushed for preventive strikes against Iran whereby civilians have been and would be harmed, suddenly speak about solidarity with the Iranian people. They only will be convincing when they stand up against sanctions and the threat of force and advocate a peaceful dialogue in the region. 

Signed by:

1.       Dr. Behrooz Abdolvand, Free University of Berlin & Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

2.       Prof. Gilbert Achcar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

3.       Dr. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London

4.       Ahmad Ahgary, founding member of the Association of Iranian Scientists and Engineers in Germany (VINI)

5.       Prof. Mohammad Ala, Persian Gulf Taskforce & Iran Heritage

6.       Tariq Ali, writer, London

7.       Dr. Katajun Amirpur, Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich

8.       Dr. Matin Baraki, University of Marburg & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

9.       Angelika Beer, ex-MEP & former President of the Iran Delegation of the European Parliament

10.   Reiner Braun, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

11.   Prof. Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University

12.   Prof. Hans-Peter Dürr, Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) 1987 & Patron of the International Munich Peace Conferences

13.   Prof. Abbas Edalat, Imperial College London & Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

14.   Ali Fathollah-Nejad, University of Münster & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

15.   Prof. Sasan Fayazmanesh, California State University, Fresno

16.   Prof. Ali Gorji, University of Münster

17.   Prof. Kai Hafez, University of Erfurt (Germany)

18.   Homeira Heidary, head of “Panorama Hindukush” Festival, Cologne

19.   Foaad Khosmood, University of California at Santa Cruz & CASMII International Steering Committee

20.   Prof. Mohssen Massarrat, University of Osnabrück & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

21.   Naz Massoumi, convenor of Campaign Iran, London

22.   Prof. Georg Meggle, University of Leipzig

23.   Prof. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran & chairman of the Urosevic Research Foundation, London

24.   Tobias Pflüger, former MEP (German Left Party) & Information Agency Militarization (IMI), Tübingen (Germany)

25.   Daniel M. Pourkesali, U.S. Board of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII)

26.   Prof. Ahad Rahmanzadeh, University of Bonn & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

27.   Sanaz Raji, University of Leeds & London School of Economics and Political Science

28.   Lt. Col. Jürgen Rose, German Air Force, Munich

29.   Prof. Werner Ruf, University of Kassel & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

30.   Prof. Nader Sadeghi, George Washington University Hospital, Washington D.C.

31.   Prof. Muhammad Sahimi, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

32.   Dr. Sabine Schiffer, founder and director of the Institute for Media Responsibility (IMV), Erlangen (Germany)

33.   Dr. Yvonne Schmidt, University of Graz & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

34.   Miriam Shabafrouz, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg

35.   Ali Shakeri, board member of the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, University of California in Irvine

36.   Siba Shakib, author & filmmaker

37.   Prof. Albert Stahel, University of Zurich & Academic Advisory Board of CASMII

38.   Dr. Rainer Werning, political scientist & author (Germany)

39.   Kaveh Yazdani, University of Osnabrück (Germany)

40.   Azadeh Zamirirad, University of Potsdam (Germany)

By Hamid Dabashi         5th August

(CNN) – In a recent congressional hearing, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman called the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act “a sword of Damocles over the Iranians” that will soon come down if President Obama’s diplomatic overture did not show signs of success by the fall.

That sword is no mere metaphor and might kill more than the president’s diplomatic overture.

The hearing came as demonstrators around the globe joined Iranians protesting the brutal crackdown of the uprising against the beleaguered regime and as a kangaroo court began the trial of the leading reformists while the contested second-term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was about to be summarily inaugurated.

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In light of the current events in Iran, Campaign Iran has decided to issue a
statement regarding our position on the elections and the subsequent wave of
protests.

Campaign Iran is an organisation which works solely with the aim of halting the
threat of war and the continuing sanctions on Iran. Therefore, we clearly do
not express an opinion on individual candidates within the Iranian election,
nor any particular preference.

However, as an activist based campaign we always support the right of protest
and condemn the repression of any demonstrations in Iran from the state. We
support democracy and human rights in Iran and believe that the current
movement which has taken to the streets vindicates our position that the
Iranian people, and only the Iranian people, have the ability and the right to
make change in Iran as they best see fit. It is clear that the democracy
movement can fight its own battles and we support their struggle.

Through the revolution of 1979 Iranian society rejected the colonial mindset of
foreign influence and still carries this position today. Those who argue for a
‘war of liberation’ can look both to the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition we strongly believe that the current situation must not be used as
an excuse for war or further sanctions. We fear that any instability within the
country could be used as a pre-text to launch an attack on Iran and we, along
with the Iranian people, stoutly reject such an eventuality. We stand against
the hijacking of this movement from any western power, in order to weaken Iran
as an obstacle to imperialism.

We call on international anti-war activists to support the right of Iranians to
protest and bring about change, free from the influence of Western leaders. We
must continue to play our role and limit the threat of war which only serves to
strangle any movements for change.