BREST, France, 9 March 2005 — An Iranian woman human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace yesterday urged western countries to genuinely support the emerging pro-democracy movements of the Middle East and look beyond their short-term economic interests. “Democracy and human rights are Europe’s long-term interests,” Shirin Ebadi said at a meeting marking International Women’s Day in the French town of Brest.
“Supporting non-democratic regimes goes against the interests of the West. When people suffer, some are pushed to emigrate ... which creates problems, particularly in Europe,” said the Iranian lawyer, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 2003 in recognition of her advocacy work for women and children in Iran.
Urging the international community to support pro-democracy groups in the Middle East, Ebadi stated that Islam was compatible with democracy and was not a religion of terror and violence. She also lamented the growing number of women victims of war. “Today wars make a greater number of victims among women and children. Women are the primary victims of war crimes,” Ebadi said. Ebadi is due to address members of the French Parliament today, before she travels to Strasbourg to speak to the foreign affairs commission of the European Parliament.
Meanwhile, negotiators from Iran and the European Union resumed key technical talks yesterday in the Swiss city of Geneva on Iran’s controversial nuclear policy, amid growing pressure for progress on the issue of Iran’s access to bomb-making material.
The confidential talks, involving diplomats and experts from Britain, France and Germany, as well as Iran, are due to last three days, a diplomatic source close to the talks added. The new round of meetings is taking place amid Iran’s continued rejection of a demand to permanently abandon uranium enrichment, a fuel process which can assist in the operation of nuclear power stations but also produces material for nuclear weapons.
The United States maintains that Iran is trying to covertly develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists that its program is purely meant to meet civilian energy needs. Iran agreed in November to suspend enrichment temporarily as a “confidence-building measure” to show its intentions are peaceful.
Nonetheless, Tehran is pressing ahead with work on a heavy water reactor at Arak, which can make weapons-grade plutonium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The EU’s presidency said yesterday there was a chance of success with the talks but warned that Iran must maintain its suspension of nuclear enrichment if negotiations were to continue.
Luxembourg Deputy Foreign Minister Nicolas Schmit insisted that it was “important to remain vigilant over the need for Iran to maintain, under surveillance by (UN nuclear inspectors), a total suspension of its activities without exception so long as the negotiations last.” He added that “a total suspension (is) the condition for the continuation and success” of the talks”.
The diplomatic source said the first day of talks in Geneva was focusing on political cooperation, with the key nuclear issue only due to be broached today and tomorrow. The Europeans have held several meetings with Tehran since December to try to persuade Iran to guarantee that it will dismantle nuclear fuel work in return for technical assistance and economic and political rewards.
The four-party talks this week in Geneva are scheduled to be the last round of technical talks before a higher level steering committee meets at the end of March. Iran’s top nuclear official Hassan Rohani warned Saturday that his country would never agree to a permanent halt on enriching uranium. “We cannot have and we will not have negotiations with the Europeans if what they want is an end” to uranium enrichment, Rohani told reporters in Tehran.
Another diplomat close to the EU-Iran talks said that the hard-line language from Tehran was no different from what the Iranians have been saying for months. The diplomat said the Europeans “are waiting to see what it really means,” in the meetings in Geneva this week.
An Iranian nuclear negotiator, Hossein Moussavian, reiterated that the Europeans had so far “not shown any seriousness” and that Iran doubted “their capacity” to strike a deal, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported.
