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![]() | Sons and daughters of Iran ! it is now time to decide whose side you are on. The time for sitting on the fence is now over. Do you want your identity and your heritage to be identified by this brainless fundamentalist on the left, or do you want to join your brave heroic brothers and sisters on the right?. If you sit by now and do nothing you have let the forces of reaction, barbarism and backwardness to triumph. If you do nothing you have abandoned your proud heritage. The walls of the outdated Islamic regime of Iran have cracked. Lets dismantle it for good together! |
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SMCCDI London Office
8/22/1999
Despite the wave of repression and crackdown on the democracy Movement in Iran;
A 23 member delegation, composed of U.K Government officials as well as representatives from the private sector are planing an 8 day visit to Iran on 16 September.
The group, headed by Neil Condon and Kazem Rudsari, will have meetings with the heads of Iranian economic, trade, cultural and industrial sectors with the view of setting up long-term contracts.
The British construction company Taylor Woodrow is amongst the delegates which is headed by Neil condon of The Middle East Trade Association.
According to Neil Condon, Britain will have a big presence in the International Trade Fare which is scheduled to take place in Tehran in October.
"The deputies were not paying full attention," Nateq-Nuri said !!!!.
People of Iran, it is now more apparent than ever - lift a mullah's beard and you will see the label 'Made in UK' - Look at this debate in the UK parliament in the aftermath of the attack by the vigilantes on the student dormitories, Tam Dalyell blames the hot summer for tempers flaring !!!
"Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow): I am out of tune with virtually all that has been said in this debate and I had better present my credentials for saying that. Eighteen months ago, my wife and I went to Iran on holiday. In the circumstances, I should say bluntly that I accepted not a penny from the Iranian Government. The trip was organised by the British museum travel company. The deputy head of the western asiatic department of the museum was the guide to the party, and there were other Parsee speakers.
The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) mentioned the position of women. My wife had to wear the chador the whole time, but the Iranians are a warm and hospitable people and we were able to speak to many women. It is an oversimplification to say that women are repressed in Iran. They are emerging quickly to positions of much responsibility, both in business and the public service, besides teaching. If comparisons are to be made with Pakistan, for example, it is clear that Iran is a very different society.
We must be careful about blanket condemnation of the mullahs. Terrible things may have happened in the past, and I do not doubt that recent events have been heart-rending. I can report to the House only my personal experience. I was involved in long conversations in the holy city of Qum with the mullahs. Some of them spoke English and we had translators for the others.
Their attitude can be summed up in what one of them said to me. He said, "We love your Virgin Mary and we respect your Jesus Christ. It is only the British Government that we do not trust." That is a result of unfortunate relations between the countries that go back to the time of Dr. Mussadeq and the whole history of relations between Iran and the west. Some of us hoped that there had been a great improvement. Since his name has been mentioned, I pay tribute to Mr. Ansari for the work that he has done in trying to bring about better relations, which have received approval in various Foreign Office statements. The Minister will know from his briefings that the late Derek Fatchett was becoming optimistic about relations with Iran.
I do not want to say that everything that my colleagues have said is wrong, but I will put one point to them. Iran has enormous problems. It is a very young society, with more than half the population under 15. On recent events in Iran, I just reflect that it is one enormous megalopolis. Given the heat in sweltering July--it is one of hottest Julys that they have experienced--one can understand why tempers are tinder-dry. That does not justify everything that may or may not have happened, but it behoves us to show some understanding.
I agree with the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome that the last thing we should do is withdraw our excellent former charge d'affaires, now the ambassador in Tehran. I was on a private visit and did not meet our diplomatic staff, but their reputation among the non-political people we met in Iran is extremely good. The Foreign Office deserves all credit in that respect.
I say "in Iran" because we should be careful about distinguishing Tehran from the rest of Iran. Isfahan, Sharaz, Hamadan, Kashan and Tabriz are totally different from the capital city. It is a huge country and we should be careful about generalisations.
I have one request that may seem trivial in the face of the events reported today, but it is important. Iran contains some of the greatest remnants of ancient civilisations in the world. We had the good fortune to visit Persepolis and Passagardae in the south and Sulamaniyah in the north, and because it was a cultural visit we saw many of the old mosques. They are in a serious condition and anything that Britain can do to help to save them from road and pollution problems would be welcome. One of the tragedies of the awful Iran-Iraq war was that the oil refineries near the Iraq border had to be hastily moved to an area between Sharaz and Isfahan. The result was that Persepolis had never known pollution like it. In those circumstances, technical help from the west is urgently needed to save part of the history of Persia and of the world. "
If you want to protest at the UK backing of the mullahs send e-mails to Foreign Affairs Select Committee
If you live in UK use your vote. Do not vote for MPs who back the mullahs.
The treacherous contracts by the Islamic republic hands over shares in the production of Iran's oil industry. This is in blatant contradiction with the laws of the Iranian oil nationalisation, it is no wonder then that the Ayatollahs have deemed this day to be inappropriate as a public holiday now.
But the day will come when our people, as in the past, will rise up and just as we took on the might of the British empire and her oil companies, will once again rightfully own its own natural resources.
The Islamic republic may have officially removed this glorious day as a public holiday, but in the hearts of all true patriotic Iranians this day will remain as the pinnacle of our struggle against imperialism and foreign powers draining us of our wealth. Revenge will be sweet!.
Many decent would be tourists cancelled their trip to Iran after the regime's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy students in Iran. It now looks they had made the right choice!.
Interestingly this paper also carries an article today on Kazem Darabi - arrested in Germany and found guilty of killing four Iranian dissidents - and how his parents claim he is tortured by the German police after having visited him. Kayhan publishers have the odiousity to print this when they know full well none of the youngsters arrested during the recent protests in Iran, have had the right to even tell their families of their whereabouts!.
'President' Khatami, you talk of 'civil society', your intelligence services arrest 1400 students - mostly under 20 years old - in one night. Yet not one of these thugs have been arrested. A regime which behaves like a thug with its citizens can only increase the hatred towards itself by it's citizens. The citizens will then one day have nothing to lose, they will explode and you and your thugs will be dealt with in the same way other dictators have been dealt with throughout history.
A journalist and a photographer from the hardline Jebheh paper have also been arrested in recent days, reports said.
Dozens of Iranian journalists have been arrested or brought in for questioning in recent weeks in a sweeping crackdown on the press.
The head of the conservative Kayhan newspaper was due in court Tuesday but the hearing was postponed after a judge dismissed five of the jurors in the case.
It said "pressure groups," the common phrase in the Iranian press for Islamic hardliners, set upon Soroush as he was getting into his car.
After Soroush got away his supporters came outside and scuffled with the vigilantes, who were chanting slogans against Soroush and the pro-reform movement, it said.
There were no reports of any injuries in the incident, which took place Thursday. Like many prominent Iranian reform figures, Soroush is a former Islamic revolutionary radical who now espouses the reform programme of President Mohammad Khatami.
His calls to separate Islam from the state have made him a revered figure among students and reformers and an object of scorn to the regime's hardliners.
Last month Tehran was rocked by six days of riots after pro-reform student demonstrators were attacked by security forces and Islamic vigilantes.
Secret Police Officer Killed in Khorasan -
TEHRAN, Aug 1 (AFP) - An Iranian secret police officer was killed in clashes in eastern Iran that left two other people dead, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.
It said two armed "thugs" who had been "creating insecurity" in the eastern town of Khawf in Khorasan province, close to the Afghan border, were killed in the clashes with intelligence ministry personnel on Saturday.
It said the two had killed the intelligence ministry officer but did not provide any further details.
The Vast Majority of Those Arrested are Under 20 Years Old -
TEHRAN, July 28 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian cleric said on Wednesday that most of those arrested in the recent unrest were less than 20 years
old, a sign of a dangerous generation gap created by fading revolutionary values.
``Those arrested are generally under 20 years old. This is alarming,'' said Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, a top aide to supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
``The first generation (of the 1979 Islamic revolution) has not been able to transfer values to the second generation. This is a threat and we must not let it slip by easily,'' he told a gathering of officials and clerics, attended by journalists.
``The second generation has neither seen the Imam nor heard his words,'' the conservative cleric said, referring to the late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The issue is of particular concern in a country where half of the population is under 20 and lacks first-hand experience of the revolution and its immediate aftermath.
Golpayegani urged educators, clerics and mosques to do more to inform the youth on the country's revolutionary past. ``The youth should be told about this all the time.''
Hundreds were arrested in riots in mid-July which followed pro-democracy student unrest after an attack by police and hardline Islamic vigilantes on a Tehran University dormitory.
Moderates backing President Mohammad Khatami warned of a hardline backlash against his reform programme after the riots.
``It was a big conspiracy. But, thank God, our people thwarted it like they have always done. America and its local lackeys are still staggering from the blow they received,'' Golpayegani said.