Publishing Articles in English and Farsi (hopefully in the future).

Sunday, February 17, 2002

 
What does Iranian Secular Opposition make of US President’s State of the Union address refrerring to Iran as part of ‘an axis of evil’?

US President George W Bush in his Annual ‘State of the Union' address to the US Congress on 29 Jan 2002, targeted North Korea, Iran and Iraq as “regimes who sponsor terror … and who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons� (hence) “threatening the United States and the world�. He said: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.�

On Iran, Bush had stated: “Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.�

It is interesting to note what a large part of Iranian secular Opposition make of Bush’s new policy and threat to Iran in the wake of US military role in the collapse of the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

In a joint statement by five Iranian political parties in exile*, dated 4 Feb 2002, Bush’s “irresponsible, threatening and war-mongering� remarks are considered “a threat not only to these three countries but to world security.� This is because of US unilateral stance and Bush’s complete disregard of the approach adopted by the United Nations and US’s European NATO allies.

The Iranian parties, however, reserve their strongest words for irresponsible policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). “IRI’s foreign policy as directed by the unelected ‘Vali-e-Faghih’, opposition to the peaceful resolution of the problems in the Middle East, hostility to America, and rhetoric of such IRI leaders as Khamenei and Rafsanjani … have led to Iran being considered as a legitimate target of the fight against terrorism�.

“Iran’s national interests as well as the requisites for safeguarding peace in the (Middle East and Persian Gulf) region dictate that Iran should persist on a policy of reducing tension in the region and (the Islamic) world. Iran should support the Peace Process (in Palestine), avoid enmity with the US, expand its (good neighbourly) relations with the other countries in the region, take a positive role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and avoid any adventurous policies in order to neutralise (Bush’s) warmongering intentions�. The statement concludes.

* The five secular Iranian political parties are:
1. Iran National Front (Organisations in Europe) – The political party consisting of followers of late Mosaddegh, the Iranian premiere (1951-53) toppled by a CIA-sponsored coup in 1953;
2. Organisation of Iranian People’s Fadaian (Majority) – The mainstream majority faction of the ex-Marxist Fadai political party, now with democratic socialist and social-democratic tendencies;
3. Iran Nationalist Republicans – A reformist secular political party;
4. Democratic People’s Party of Iran – A social-democratic and reformist splinter group from the Tudeh (Communist) People’s Party of Iran;
5. Iranian People’s Party – A nationalist party led by the late Dariush Forouhar, a victim together with his wife of the ‘serial murders’ in 1998 of dissidents in the hands of the so-called ‘rogue elements’ from Iranian secret police**.

** See my previous postings at http://farzaneh.blogspot.com/