Iran has by all standards, the worst human rights record of any country in the world today. In recent months, there has been a sharprise in execution of the youth and suppression of women. Since August 2005, an already radical regime in Tehran has become more radical with Ahmadinejad and his policy of terror in Iraq, race for nuclear arms and suppression at home. United States has declared his regime as the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism. Armed with deadly missiles, Ahmadinejad’s regime is capable of striking parts of Europe, Israel and American forces in the Middle East.

 

Time is running out

Ahmadinejad’s belligerence runs counter to the national interests of Iranians, as does the regime’s nuclear drive, terrorism, and meddling in Iraq. In April 2006, Iranian regime's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, announced that their regime had operated the first cascade of centrifuges, injecting gas in them and producing enriched uranium. Ahmadinejad reiterated, "The hegemonic powers of the world, particularly the criminal United States, are faced with countless problems and serious challenges today…” Rafsanjani also claimed that the regime can enrich uranium on an industrial scale and emphasized, "We must expand these machines to acquire a complete industrial unit… When ElBaradei comes to Iran, he will face a new situation."

 

Nuclear Tehran: Danger to Iranians and the world

On 2006 International Women’s Day, women staged a large anti-regime protest denouncing Ahmadinejad’s nuclear agenda. In a recent call-in program on the Farsi-language Radio Farda, a caller from Iran said: "The Iranian establishment claims that nuclear energy is the right of the Iranian nation. Aren't freedom and democracy the right of the Iranian people? The oil money is not the right of the Iranian people? Why the names of Palestine, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and Syria are included in our annual budget? Are they partners in our oil money or are they from one of Iran's provinces?"  Another caller from Tehran told Radio Farda that "In my opinion, Iran's nuclear case must have been taken to the UN Security Council, because this regime has threatened the lives of 70 million people with its nuclear ambitions?”

 

Islamic Fundamentalism: the Rising Global Threat

Tehran's foreign policy is designed to advance its fundamentalist hegemonic objectives in line with its dream of a theocratic empire. Use of terrorism has been and will remain to be the mullah’s primary means of advancing foreign policy objectives in the region and across the globe.  In April 2006, The Sunday Times of UK reported that Iranian officials are boasting about the 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action in Middle East, Europe and US.

Robert Blackwill, deputy national security adviser during President Bush's first term, told the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, “Iraq thinks Iran is the major strategic threat to Iraq”. Washington rightly believes that a nuclear-armed Iran presents a threat to Middle East stability and world peace. Indeed the Iranian regime under Ahmadinejad’s watch is a rising challenge and threat which can no longer be ignored.   

 

Speakers on this platform will present views on ways to neutralize his radical agenda and defuse the rising threat of Tehran’s regime.

See Platform II >>