Thursday, July 01, 2004

French Connections with Iran

A letter to the editor of the International Herald Tribune:
The article French investment in Iran: Tehran traffic confirms its acceleration (June 23) got it right in pointing to the fact that French companies have rushed to use Iran's petro-dollars to emerge as Tehran's second partner among EU countries (following Germany) in just a few years.

Yet, the story failed to underscore the appeasement policy that the French government has adopted vis-à-vis the clerical regime.

France has sought to placate the mullahs in Iran by ignoring their egregious human rights abuses, their quest for a nuclear arsenal and the regime's undercutting of peace in the Middle East. Last year, in a made-for-TV operation, heavily armed French policemen raided the homes of Iranian political refugees and the office of Iran's anti-fundamentalist opposition leader in northern Paris, arresting dissidents. One year on, little evidence justifying the raid has been produced.

These spineless policies have proven to be a dismal failure, serving only to solidify the grip of the most anti-Western and extremist wing of the ruling theocracy on power.

Shahin Gobadi, London
National Council of Resistance of Iran

Also of interest: a letter on Syria and Lebanon
from Syria's Embassy in Washington

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