According to the agreement, Iran would sign the Additional Protocols to the Non Proliferation Treaty, allowing nuclear inspectors from the Vienna-based IAEA to inspect Iranian nuclear sites and projects at will, without any restrictions or conditions from the Iranian side, thus escaping possible international sanctions.

The proposal for a Helsinki type undertaking towards Tehran was made by Dr. Shaheen Fatemi, a professor of Economics at the American University of Paris who is also the Editor of the Paris-based internet news site "Iran va Jahan" (Iran and the World) while in a tour of conferences and lectures in the German capital of Berlin.

Most of European nations, plus the United States and Canada as well as the Soviet Union signed in Helsinki, Finland on first of August 1975 an agreement that would require all the signatories to respect human rights and democracy.

The agreement was perhaps the most important first step towards liberation of Russia and Eastern European countries, according to many scholars.

"During my entire recent visit to Germany which included talking to important and influential German government officials, leading members of the ruling party (SPD) as well as the opposition party (CDU), I was under the impression that while trade with Iran is very important for them, they do seem to be aware of the human rights dilemma", Dr Fatemi wrote.

"I certainly believe that selection of Dr. Shirin Ebadi by Nobel Peace Award committee has further exacerbated this contradiction for all those who profess respect for human dignity while dealing with the Mullahs in Iran. Time and again, the same argument has been raised, "we know how bad things are in Iran, and we hope to improve the situation by engaging the government in our dialogue", he added.

The questions that were raised by members of the audience at this gathering where the panel discussion took place were not much different from those that repeatedly have been asked by the members of the Iranian community in Europe from the leaders of the European Union:

When challenged at these meetings to come up with an alternative for the present practice, Dr. Fatemi reminded the German deputies of "another era when another generation of Western leaders was faced with an earlier version of totalitarian monsters in the Soviet Union and its Satellite States".

At that time representatives of thirty-five nations gathered in Helsinki, Finland, in 1975 for a Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Final Act of the Conference, known as the Helsinki Accords, set forth a number of basic human rights by guaranteeing that:

Within this framework the participating States will recognize and respect the freedom of the individual to profess and practise, alone or in community with others, religion or belief acting in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience.

The participating States on whose territory national minorities exist will respect the right of persons belonging to such minorities to equality before the law, will afford them the full opportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and will, in this manner, protect their legitimate interests in this sphere.

This accord was backed up with an organization of representatives of virtually all the states of Europe-with the exception of Albania-as well as the United States and Canada, committed to formalizing decisions on important questions affecting the security and stability of European continent as a whole. The Soviets wanted security of the post-WW II borders.

The West, in return, was interested in obtaining safeguards for the observance of human rights behind the Iron Curtain.

Editor’s note: The above article by Dr Shaheen Fatemi was published by Iran va Jahan on 29 October 2003

Highlights and some editing are by IPS