What does Iran have to teach the world?

08 September 2009

La Nación, Argentina

What can Iran teach the world, so that once again his president is allowed to address the United Nations General Assembly?

Maybe Ahmadinejad wants to justify why Iran is governed by an oppressive regime that denies its citizens’ rights, freedom of expression, religion and press, and brutally suppresses the rights of women, children, ethnic and religious minorities and opposing political groups.

Maybe he wants to reveal to the world the secret of last June’s Iranian elections in which, although there were strong signs that the reform candidate Mousavi was winning, the party in power announced a powerful victory for Ahmadinejad . Maybe Iran wants to explain why it is the country which most supports terrorism, with financial support and training to Shiite militants in Iraq, the Taliban in Afghanistan and such terrorist organizations as Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

This might explain why Iran was the perpetrator, among others, of the hateful attack against the AMIA community center in 1994, which caused 85 killed and hundreds of wounded, and why Ahmadinejad appointed Ahmad Vahidi as Iranian Minister of defense, though he is hunted by Interpol and accused of being the intellectual author of the attack.

As Ahmadinejad will be speaking to the UN, it will be more interesting yet if he were to explain the reasons why Iran failed to obey five Security Council resolutions that ordered it to cease its nuclear program of uranium enrichment and missile production, and failed to follow the repeat4ed warnings of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Could Iran plan to request international aid, arguing that, despite its oil potential and state control of its economy, it still has two-digit rates of unemployment and inflation, is one of the world’s countries with the worst drug addiction and without any legislation against money laundering? Could it be that Ahmadinejad wants to give a shameful history lesson, of which he has shown how little he knows, to deny the Holocaust as he did in his speech at the Tehran University in 2009?

With these past developments, it is of concern that Iran is strengthening its relations with Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and Nicaragua. It is still a greater cause of concern that, despite repeated condemnations by countries and organizations against Iran, Iranian threats continue and the international community offers it opportunities, such as at the UN on September 24, to repeat is attacks against the most elementary values, freedoms and human rights.

As said by Abraham Foxman …. Words are not sufficient and the countries should translate them into actions.

Historically Costa Rica has been an international bulwark for peace, democracy, equality, freedom and protection of human rights. That is why it has been the spokesman for many Costa Ricans who appeal to the government and to presidential candidates:

(i) that Costa Rica head a motion at the UN to change the agenda of the General Assembly and to exclude Ahmadinejad, since his speeches incite hatred and confrontation;

(ii) if this is not achieved, that the Costa Rica representative at the UN be asked to leave during the speech of the Iranian president in a demonstration of protest.

These would be concrete actions, not just words.