Changes facing Iran on the Threshold of Year 2000 – Bulletin 1

Written by ACI in 30 November 98

Today, by electing Mr. Khatami, himself an approved candidate of the ruling religious hierarchy, the people of Iran registered their protest with the only way available to them: A negative vote to Velayat Faghih, and at the same time putting their faith in Mr. Khatami by giving him the highest support because of his attractive promises for freedom and the rule of law

Joschka Fischer  

Bundesminister des Auswärtigen 

Auswärtiges AMT 

Adenanerallee 99-103 

Postfach 1148,  

53001 Bonn 

Changes facing Iran on the Threshold of Year 2000 – Bulletin 1 

Ref: 22 / M / 96  

November 30, 1998 

Sir, 

Almost twenty years have passed since the Iranian Revolution, a time that with a populace and logical view towards home and world policy Iran could have been amongst the developed countries. 

Today, by electing Mr. Khatami, himself an approved candidate of the ruling religious hierarchy, the people of Iran registered their protest with the only way available to them: A negative vote to Velayat Faghih, and at the same time putting their faith in Mr. Khatami by giving him the highest support because of his attractive promises for freedom and the rule of law. Sadly: 

  • Due to existing and worsening socio-political and economic problems, day by day during the last eighteen months people’s quality of life and standard of living have weakened and are on a downward spiral after putting behind the climax and difficulties arising form the presidential elections.  
  • Social Trend – Pressure on every level of the society has increased: The doubling of the population and its consequences, the enormous problems concerned with a very young population (under forties make up 4/5 of Iran’s population), exhaustive oppression of women and lack of any real and practical programs have caused widespread corruption and despondency within the society. 
  • Economic Trend – The ever decreasing income and purchasing power, destruction of the middle class and its dissolution into the lowest level of the society, the growing wealth of the small group in power, theft, bribery … have all limited progress within the society and reduced Iran, a rich country in its natural resources, to the present day situation. 
  • Political Trend – The pressures from the religious ideology of a small group governing the country, ignoring even the most basic of rights, non observance of the law – even the law according to the constitution of the Islamic Republic – and using terror for silencing dissent both in and out of Iran, has left no credit or reputation for the people of Iran at the end of this millennium. 

The supportive policies of United States and the European Community towards the Islamic Republic by establishing economic relations and signing profitable contracts which are purely to alleviate economic problems at home are a complete disregard of the interest and rights of the Iranian people. We are in no doubt that:  

  1. Nothing even the smallest of the oppressive actions of the governing regime in Iran is not hidden from the eyes of the West. 
  1. Non observance of human rights, continuous executions, persecutions of the free thinkers and journalists, the employment of terror in and out of Iran like the heinous assassinations of Bakhtiar, Ghassemloo …, the fatwa on Salman Roshdi and most recently the brutal and vile murder of Parvaneh and Darius Forouhar in Iran, are but a few examples of the religious despotism governing Iran which are not hidden from the eyes of the West. 
  1. The plundering of Iran’s national wealth and the pillaging of its natural assets – for the benefit of the West – is not hidden from the eyes of the West. 
  1. The political incompetence of the government of the Islamic Republic and the true wish of the people of Iran for having a democratic government is not hidden from the eyes of the West. 

Let us not forget that although global government, the formation of the European Union … has created a suitable and profitable platform for the western countries it has also brought certain responsibilities with it. If due to financial and economic policies United Nations, the Security Council, the United States and the European Union reserve the right to choose to support a group who do not necessarily represent the true wishes of the people of Iran, they must remember that the other side of the equation is almost seventy million people of Iran living in a vast country occupying 1,648,000 square kilometers of one of the most strategically sensitive areas of the world.  

Economic and financial policies of the Western world must not blind them to the fact that Iran’s problems are accelerating at a dangerous speed and that it is heading towards another explosion. Of course, yet again the major harm will face the Iranian nation. But, the western countries that have tasted the bitter experience of unrestricted support of Iran’s previous regime and its consequences will pay a much higher price this time. 

Dr Hossein Ladjevardi 

President,  

Association of Iranian Researchers. 

cc  

Kofi Annan, Secretary General, UN  

Jürgen Trumpf – Secretary General, EU 

Mr. Hubert Vedrine – Foreign Minister, France 

Mr. Lamberto Dini – Foreign Minister, Italy 

Robin Cook – Foreign Secretary, UK  

Madeline Albright – Secretary of State, USA