BRITAIN EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR IRANIAN STUDENTS
By Nazenin Ansari Moshiri
London 21 Nov. (IPS) The British government expressed support for the Iranian students protesting a death sentence verdict imposed on an outspoken academic and Islamist thinker, saying it "watches closely events in Iran, according to the London-based "Keyhan of London".
"In a government press briefing the British Secretary of State for
Defence, Geoff Hoon reiterated British support for pro-democracy
demonstrators' calls for changes in the Islamic Republic", the
Persian-language weekly newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"We have continued to watch closely the situation in Iran over a long period of time, we have consistently supported those forces that perhaps we have seen most recently out on the streets and we want to see Iran continue on the path to reform, which certainly the Foreign Office has consistently encouraged", the Minister has said.
Iranian students, joined by the Parliament and the government, both controlled by the reformists, as well as ordinary people, started their protest immediately after a junior judge in the western city of Hamadan handed a death sentence, as well as ten years of ban from professional activities, eight years of exile to remote areas and 74 lashes of the wipe to Mr. Hashem Aqjari, a war disabled and university professor, charging him with insulting Muslim’s prophet Mohammad and the clerical corps, by advising the people not to follow the clerics "blindly, as do apes".
Frightened by the constant growth of the popular anger, that has touched all universities throughout the nation, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the unpopular leader of the Islamic republic wielded both the carrot and the stick, warning that he might unleash "popular forces", meaning the Basij volunteers and thugs if the authorities could not solve the problems in the one hand but also ordered the Judiciary he controls to review the death penalty.
Mr. Hoon's statement came a day after US Deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker called on the authorities in the Islamic Republic to "start listening to its people and the people, we think, are sending a message that they are looking for a change in the way they are being governed and an opportunity for a different or better life".
The US statement won a retort from the Islamic Republic that Washington should mind its own business. Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh replied "for domestic affairs, it is up to us to decide". "We do not accept that a third party intervenes in our internal affairs".
Mr. Hoon’s remarks also came as in Brussels, the European Union had warned Iran that the signing of a Trade and Co-operation Agreement could not be separated from the Iranian ruling authorities respect for human rights, democracy and also their support for Palestinian and other Arab groups opposed to peace with Israel. ENDS BRITAIN STUDENTS PROTEST 211102