ESFANDIAR RAHIM MASHAEI

A lot of people are making this propaganda and publicity that Iran has the intention of attacking and invading Israel. That’s just negative publicity. It is baseless and not correct. Israel has been the one that has always threatened Iran and other nations in the area. It’s always been Israel that has actually invaded the neighboring countries. Nobody has ever militarily attacked Israel.

When Saddam Hussein militarily attacked Iran, the rest of the countries all supported him. And at that time, there were mass executions in Iraq. In order to continue to support Saddam Hussein, they issued a lot of reports about human-rights abuse in Iran. And they put Iran in the black list of human-rights violators. But at the same time they took Iraq off the black list.

There are actually not too many people in the prisons. There were hundreds and thousands of people who came on the streets voicing their opinions. If we had to capture all of them, the prisons would not even have space. The few that are in prison are the ones who vandalized and created violence and took away the safety of the people.

Political parties have a responsibility to create a healthy political situation in the country. If any party tries to move in a direction that is against the national interest, it will not be allowed to continue its activities.

Anybody can belong to the opposition groups. But there are people who are going to organize and concentrate on regime change, and they do everything toward these goals. Show me any country in the world that does not consider these activities to be crimes. Could they be encouraged in the United States or any country in Europe?

When we were here during the General Assembly, before that there was another meeting in Pittsburgh, and there were some demonstrations. Police treated the people violently.... The governments and the political systems in the West don’t believe actually in human rights.

One per cent of the U.S. population are in prison. In Iran, it’s .2 per cent, and most of them are drug traffickers. Nobody is talking about prisoners in the United States. Should there be an international determination against human-rights abuses in United States prisons? Is there any interest on the part of international organizations to do this? I don’t think so.

A lot of people are making this propaganda and publicity that Iran has the intention of attacking and invading Israel. That’s just negative publicity. It is baseless and not correct. Israel has been the one that has always threatened Iran and other nations in the area. It’s always been Israel that has actually invaded the neighboring countries. Nobody has ever militarily attacked Israel.

Political parties have a responsibility to create a healthy political situation in the country. If any party tries to move in a direction that is against the national interest, it will not be allowed to continue its activities.

Anybody can belong to the opposition groups. But there are people who are going to organize and concentrate on regime change, and they do everything toward these goals. Show me any country in the world that does not consider these activities to be crimes. Could they be encouraged in the United States or any country in Europe?

There are actually not too many people in the prisons. There were hundreds and thousands of people who came on the streets voicing their opinions. If we had to capture all of them, the prisons would not even have space. The few that are in prison are the ones who vandalized and created violence and took away the safety of the people.

When we were here during the General Assembly, before that there was another meeting in Pittsburgh, and there were some demonstrations. Police treated the people violently.... The governments and the political systems in the West don’t believe actually in human rights.

When Saddam Hussein militarily attacked Iran, the rest of the countries all supported him. And at that time, there were mass executions in Iraq. In order to continue to support Saddam Hussein, they issued a lot of reports about human-rights abuse in Iran. And they put Iran in the black list of human-rights violators. But at the same time they took Iraq off the black list.

One per cent of the U.S. population are in prison. In Iran, it’s .2 per cent, and most of them are drug traffickers. Nobody is talking about prisoners in the United States. Should there be an international determination against human-rights abuses in United States prisons? Is there any interest on the part of international organizations to do this? I don’t think so.