Hasbara Buster
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EU human rights report ploy for concessions on Iran talks:
professor
Interview with Mohammad Marandi
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, a Professor at Tehran University from the Iranian Capital, Tehran, about statements released by the EU accusing Iran of continued human rights violations.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Do you think that this is the price that Iran has to pay, in the words of our guest in London, when it comes to international relations?
Marandi: I agree that the intentions that lie behind the accusations and statements made by the European parliament have nothing to do with human rights and that this is political.
The Europeans want to put pressure on Iran to try to influence Iran, to try to bring about change in Iran basically because Iran is an independent country, it has an independent foreign policy and the Europeans and the Americans don’t like that.
Otherwise, for example... the Europeans have witnessed the occupation of Bahrain by Saudi forces. In Bahrain you have a family dictatorship oppressing its own people. That’s not a problem – the United States continues to have a major military base there.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow women to drive cars or have independent bank accounts; no one has the right to vote and the country is named after a family.
Or in the case of Israel, which is an apartheid regime like apartheid South Africa, no difference. It is a key friend and ally of Western countries, which is constantly praised by both the Europeans and the United States that somehow being a democracy, just as white South Africa was during apartheid I assume.
But I think an important point is that the Europeans are mistaken if they think they can influence Iran in a way in which benefits them by treating Iran in such a manner.
This only creates greater sensitivity; it makes Iran more distrustful of the Europeans because after all the Europeans themselves have been involved in oppressive measures against ordinary Iranians through sanctions that target ordinary Iranians.
And the Europeans have helped Saddam Hussein kill tens of thousands of Iranians both through chemical weapons and other weapons. So, there are no legitimate reasons for the Europeans to make such accusations and it only hurts their own relationship with Iran.
Press TV: Women’s rights, the issue of dissidents in Iran, the problem with the death penalty in Iran. These are issues that as our guest in London was saying have been mentioned in that resolution.
What is your response to the suggestion there that what this resolution is about, is allowing Iran to engage in talks with the EU on these issues.
Marandi: Again, the Europeans are not in a position to talk about human rights in Iran. Obviously these are not European values – the Europeans have commoditized women – that’s not of value; the Europeans have excellent relations with Saudi Arabia – this has nothing to do with history.
In fact the leader of the Europeans and the leader of the Western world, Obama just came back from Saudi Arabia and he did not raise any issues concerning human rights in his meetings with Saudi leaders.
In fact the Saudi king has imprisoned four of his own daughters and there is no complaint in the United States or for the most part by organizations affiliated to the West like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which are ideologically bound to the West itself.
So, we shouldn’t really take these things seriously and I don’t think serious people do. In other dictatorships in this part of the world the United States has a very good relationship with each and every one of them on the other side of the Persian Gulf.
When a coup took place in Egypt the United States did not impose any sanctions – it was probably not happy about it. Regardless of what you may think President Morsi it was a coup.
In the Ukraine they overthrew an elected president whether they like them or not, but that is how the United States and the Europeans deal with human rights and human values.
And that’s why the Iranians have no respect for the European parliament because it is obvious that the European parliament does not respect human rights.
People today – again it’s not about history – Western governments, Western companies and Western officials who are in power today were involved in chemical weapons, supporting Saddam Hussein produce and use them and they also helped Saddam Hussein hide the fact that he had used these chemical weapons against Iranians. And the European parliament has done nothing to put these people on trial or to punish them and people in Iran are dying as we speak.
Press TV: One commentator on our ace Book page was saying every country has human rights issues and human rights can be improved upon.
Do you think Iran now should be able to trust the EU, enter into talks as our guest says rather than saying the EU is dictating the internal behavior of Iran, it should enter into talks on the issue of human rights?
Marandi: No because I think the Europeans are in no position to talk about human rights in any part of the world.
The past few centuries in the world that we live in, most of the problems are due to colonialism that was initiated in Europe itself and in the world that we live in today it is Europe that is part of the problem.
The Europeans until the very end supported the Mubarak regime along with the United States.
The Europeans in fact in Tunisia when the Ben Ali regime was facing the revolution it was the French foreign minister who said that the French will aid the Tunisian government to bring back order on the streets of Tunisia through their experience and their knowledge in dealing with riots and so on.
The Europeans have little to say when we speak about Ukraine when the Estonian foreign minister’s phone conversation is leaked with [Catherine] Ashton saying that a third force from the opposition was killing both the police and the demonstrators in Kiev. The European parliament has not requested or demanded for any organization or any European institution to follow up and see who actually killed the people of Ukraine – because it’s not in the interests of the EU.
So, when the Iranians see this it is obviously seen as an attempt to put pressure on Iran. It is not a request when the language is offensive.
And it is not language that the British would use when they speak to the Saudis because the British right now, for example, they want to sell tens of billions of dollars in aircraft to the Saudi regime and therefore they would never make statements like that to the Saudis because they are closely associated to that country whereas in Saudi Arabia, again, women cannot even able to drive cars.
On the other hand, I myself, my own boss at the university is a woman.
Press TV: Do you think that trust can be built between the sides?
Marandi: No not with this sort of behavior on behalf of the Europeans. The Europeans we have to recall have imposed sanctions on Iran that have basically killed ordinary Iranians. Over the past couple of years they’ve tried to prevent Iran from even importing medicine.
In the early 1990s there were people in the Iranian government who believed that we should give concessions to the Europeans and every time the Iranians gave concessions the Europeans concessions the Americans became more arrogant and came back with greater demands.
professor
Interview with Mohammad Marandi
Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, a Professor at Tehran University from the Iranian Capital, Tehran, about statements released by the EU accusing Iran of continued human rights violations.
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Do you think that this is the price that Iran has to pay, in the words of our guest in London, when it comes to international relations?
Marandi: I agree that the intentions that lie behind the accusations and statements made by the European parliament have nothing to do with human rights and that this is political.
The Europeans want to put pressure on Iran to try to influence Iran, to try to bring about change in Iran basically because Iran is an independent country, it has an independent foreign policy and the Europeans and the Americans don’t like that.
Otherwise, for example... the Europeans have witnessed the occupation of Bahrain by Saudi forces. In Bahrain you have a family dictatorship oppressing its own people. That’s not a problem – the United States continues to have a major military base there.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow women to drive cars or have independent bank accounts; no one has the right to vote and the country is named after a family.
Or in the case of Israel, which is an apartheid regime like apartheid South Africa, no difference. It is a key friend and ally of Western countries, which is constantly praised by both the Europeans and the United States that somehow being a democracy, just as white South Africa was during apartheid I assume.
But I think an important point is that the Europeans are mistaken if they think they can influence Iran in a way in which benefits them by treating Iran in such a manner.
This only creates greater sensitivity; it makes Iran more distrustful of the Europeans because after all the Europeans themselves have been involved in oppressive measures against ordinary Iranians through sanctions that target ordinary Iranians.
And the Europeans have helped Saddam Hussein kill tens of thousands of Iranians both through chemical weapons and other weapons. So, there are no legitimate reasons for the Europeans to make such accusations and it only hurts their own relationship with Iran.
Press TV: Women’s rights, the issue of dissidents in Iran, the problem with the death penalty in Iran. These are issues that as our guest in London was saying have been mentioned in that resolution.
What is your response to the suggestion there that what this resolution is about, is allowing Iran to engage in talks with the EU on these issues.
Marandi: Again, the Europeans are not in a position to talk about human rights in Iran. Obviously these are not European values – the Europeans have commoditized women – that’s not of value; the Europeans have excellent relations with Saudi Arabia – this has nothing to do with history.
In fact the leader of the Europeans and the leader of the Western world, Obama just came back from Saudi Arabia and he did not raise any issues concerning human rights in his meetings with Saudi leaders.
In fact the Saudi king has imprisoned four of his own daughters and there is no complaint in the United States or for the most part by organizations affiliated to the West like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which are ideologically bound to the West itself.
So, we shouldn’t really take these things seriously and I don’t think serious people do. In other dictatorships in this part of the world the United States has a very good relationship with each and every one of them on the other side of the Persian Gulf.
When a coup took place in Egypt the United States did not impose any sanctions – it was probably not happy about it. Regardless of what you may think President Morsi it was a coup.
In the Ukraine they overthrew an elected president whether they like them or not, but that is how the United States and the Europeans deal with human rights and human values.
And that’s why the Iranians have no respect for the European parliament because it is obvious that the European parliament does not respect human rights.
People today – again it’s not about history – Western governments, Western companies and Western officials who are in power today were involved in chemical weapons, supporting Saddam Hussein produce and use them and they also helped Saddam Hussein hide the fact that he had used these chemical weapons against Iranians. And the European parliament has done nothing to put these people on trial or to punish them and people in Iran are dying as we speak.
Press TV: One commentator on our ace Book page was saying every country has human rights issues and human rights can be improved upon.
Do you think Iran now should be able to trust the EU, enter into talks as our guest says rather than saying the EU is dictating the internal behavior of Iran, it should enter into talks on the issue of human rights?
Marandi: No because I think the Europeans are in no position to talk about human rights in any part of the world.
The past few centuries in the world that we live in, most of the problems are due to colonialism that was initiated in Europe itself and in the world that we live in today it is Europe that is part of the problem.
The Europeans until the very end supported the Mubarak regime along with the United States.
The Europeans in fact in Tunisia when the Ben Ali regime was facing the revolution it was the French foreign minister who said that the French will aid the Tunisian government to bring back order on the streets of Tunisia through their experience and their knowledge in dealing with riots and so on.
The Europeans have little to say when we speak about Ukraine when the Estonian foreign minister’s phone conversation is leaked with [Catherine] Ashton saying that a third force from the opposition was killing both the police and the demonstrators in Kiev. The European parliament has not requested or demanded for any organization or any European institution to follow up and see who actually killed the people of Ukraine – because it’s not in the interests of the EU.
So, when the Iranians see this it is obviously seen as an attempt to put pressure on Iran. It is not a request when the language is offensive.
And it is not language that the British would use when they speak to the Saudis because the British right now, for example, they want to sell tens of billions of dollars in aircraft to the Saudi regime and therefore they would never make statements like that to the Saudis because they are closely associated to that country whereas in Saudi Arabia, again, women cannot even able to drive cars.
On the other hand, I myself, my own boss at the university is a woman.
Press TV: Do you think that trust can be built between the sides?
Marandi: No not with this sort of behavior on behalf of the Europeans. The Europeans we have to recall have imposed sanctions on Iran that have basically killed ordinary Iranians. Over the past couple of years they’ve tried to prevent Iran from even importing medicine.
In the early 1990s there were people in the Iranian government who believed that we should give concessions to the Europeans and every time the Iranians gave concessions the Europeans concessions the Americans became more arrogant and came back with greater demands.
And I think the current administration recognizes this and I think this is a ploy to put pressure on Iran to get concessions and it’s simply not going to work. The government is going to stand firm in its position on the Iranian nuclear program.
PressTV - EU human rights report ploy for concessions on Iran talks: professor
PressTV - EU human rights report ploy for concessions on Iran talks: professor
