With the November 29 re-opening of the JCPOA nuclear negotiations between Iran, the U.S., and five other global powers, the eyes of the world are again on Iran. There, hundreds of political prisoners languish in its prisons, subject to torture and denial of basic rights, as the Islamic Republic violently lashes out against new waves of just, popular protests, recently in Khuzestan, now in Isfahan.
Meanwhile the danger of open conflict between Iran and Israel and/or the U.S. looms over the proceedings.
In this grave situation, the International Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners (IEC) demands:
of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW
of the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS
“As our Emergency Appeal states, the ‘governments of the U.S. and Iran act from their national interests,’” says IEC spokesperson Dolly Veale. “Our campaign on the other hand proceeds from the interests of humanity. As our Appeal goes on to state: ‘we the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran.’”
“We also hold that people in the U.S. have a special responsibility given its history of intervention in Iran,” Dolly Veale continues. “That is, ‘to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran.’”
The Campaign’s Emergency Appeal: The Lives of Iran’s Political Prisoners Hang in the Balance – We Must ACT NOW! has been endorsed by over 3,000 people globally, including Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Gloria Steinem, Ariel Dorfman, Jody Williams, Daniel Ellsberg, Judith Butler, and Raymond Lotta, and appeared as an ad on the back cover of the Summer issue of The New York Review of Books.