Tucson, AZ (June 1, 2007) - Just days after the highest level official
talks between US and Iranian officials in almost three decades, a Tucson group
called Arizona Iranians for Peace spoke out today in support of continued
dialogue and an expansion of bilateral negotiations.
"As proud Americans of Iranian descent, we are deeply
concerned with the current rise in tensions between the US and Iran," said UA
linguistics professor Simin Karimi.
"While for the past two decades Iranians have been a
vibrant part of the Arizona community," she added, "we have not been vocal on
international issues. It’s now essential for us to provide our unique insights
on this topic in an effort to ease the tensions existing between our adopted
homeland and the land of our heritage."
Arizona Iranians for Peace is a new grassroots group
made up of Iranian-Americans from all walks of life who are voters in the state.
They aim to raise public awareness about the importance of diplomacy as a means
of resolving the current nuclear standoff, and will be meeting with Arizona’s
representatives to ask for Congressional help in preventing a preemptive attack
on Iran.
The US has accused Iran of secretly trying to develop
nuclear weapons, while Iran claims its nuclear program is intended solely for
peaceful purposes.
Chief among the group’s demands is that the US must
pursue dialogue without preconditions regarding Iran’s uranium
enrichment.
"The precondition that Iran suspend its uranium
enrichment before negotiations can proceed has not been accepted—nor is it likely to be accepted in
the future—by Iran, which claims such
activity as an inalienable right under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty,"
said Omid Mahdavi, an engineer at the University of Arizona. "So a different
approach has to be adopted—one that focuses on continued dialogue and non-violence."
The group is also asking Arizona’s representatives to
limit the president’s ability to carry out preemptive strikes against
Iran.
"Military strikes against Iran would further harm
American interests in the region," said Ali Scotten, a UA alumnus in Middle
Eastern Studies and Fulbright Scholar. "Iranian cooperation is essential in
stabilizing both Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iranian retaliation in these
countries would render our efforts to bring peace to the region virtually
impossible."
Members of the group stressed that Iran presents a
unique situation in the Middle East in that the majority of the nation’s
population holds favorable views towards Americans.
All this, however, would be lost in the face of a US
attack.
National defense, they argue, is the only cause that
would unite most Iranians with the current Islamic regime.
Furthermore, calls for regime change coming from
Washington have already resulted in crackdowns on legitimate democratic forces
working inside the Islamic Republic.
"If Iraq can be seen as an enormous blunder on the
part of the Bush administration, then an attack on Iran would go down as the
worst foreign policy disaster in American history," added Karimi.
The group had spoken out in favor of a House
resolution that would have required Congressional approval for military action
against Iran. "We would like to thank Congressmen Raul Grijalva and Ed Pastor,
who were the only two Arizona representatives to vote in favor of the
resolution," said Mahdavi.
While the resolution ultimately failed to be amended
to the
2008 Department of Defense Budget, Scotten claimed to
"still have faith in our elected leaders’ wisdom to see behind the fiery
rhetoric and be brave enough to give diplomacy a chance.
We owe it to both the American and Iranian
people."
Contact
Info: If you would like more information
about Arizona Iranians for Peace, or to schedule an interview,
please contact
Ali G. Scotten,
PhD Student, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
773-573-8761, scotten@uchicago.edu
... Payvand News - 6/1/07 ... --
