“Iran today is a prison”

Helle Dale / June 12, 2010

It is high time the United States and Europe confronted Iran about its history of human rights abuses committed against its own people. Iran is a problem for the world on so many levels: as a nightmare nuclear power, as a sponsor of international terrorism, a nuclear proliferator and a threat to regional stability in the Middle East. But what has often been missing in the international hand-wringing sessions vis-à-vis Iran is the toll the Tehran regime is taking on its own people. Stating that we will deal with whoever is in power is simply not good enough when it comes to certain kinds of regimes. It leaves the Iranian people with the impression that we simple don’t care – and just as bad, it leaves the regime with the feeling that it can act with impunity against its own population.

In that context, it is important that Washington and the EU have finally pushed the issue of Iran’s human rights record to come up before the U.N. Human Rights Council. On Tuesday, Iran was denounced in Geneva for its bloody crackdowns following the peaceful protests that followed the contested Iranian election on June 12, one year ago Saturday. The accusations were leveled as the U.N. Security Council voted to impose additional – though not very stringent – new sanctions on Iran.

It is high time, the world focused on what is going on inside Iran. According to Iranian Radio Free Europe journalist Glonaz Esfandiari, speaking at the Heritage Foundation on June 9th, “Iran today is a prison.” (more…)