Middle East Experts Warn Against Military Option in Iran
For immediate release: Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Today more than 200 scholars, academics, commentators, and former U.S. government officials issued a strong condemnation of the threat of U.S. military action against Iran and called on the Bush administration to enter into face-to-face negotiations with the government in Tehran.
In a letter sent to the White House Tuesday evening, the group urges diplomacy to resolve concerns over the development of nuclear materials that have magnified tensions between Iran and the U.S. and global community.
“As the International Atomic Energy Agency has found no evidence of research or diversion of materials toward atomic weapons in Iran, concerns about future dual use of nuclear technology ought to be addressed in face to face negotiations,” write the signatories and supporters, a diverse group of well respected Middle East experts from around the world as well as former U.S. officials and journalists. The letter warns that the likely “catastrophic regional and global consequences of escalating this crisis will not serve the interests of the United States, the course of democratic development in Iran, or the cause of global peace.”
Among the signatories are Professors Juan Cole, Charles Butterworth, Richard Falk, Ervand Abrahamian, Ahmad Sadri, and Noam Chomsky. On Wednesday, several signatories of the letter held a press conference in Washington to answer questions about their position. “We started the letter out of a sense of frustration that the experts in the field were not being consulted as the U.S. develops policy toward Iran,” explained Professor Ahmad Sadri, who coordinated the project. “This is the same mistake the U.S. government made before going to Iraq. We’re saying don’t do that again.”
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), which hosted the press conference, is a non-partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest that has worked for more than 60 years to support peaceful alternatives to war and other deadly conflicts and promote nuclear disarmament. FCNL represents 26 Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends (called Quakers). FCNL speaks for itself and like-minded individuals.
Read the full text of the letter and see a list of signatories.
Speaker Biographical Information
Amb. James Akins served as US envoy to Kuwait and Iraq and later as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the oil crisis of 1973 & 74 under Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Before his career in the foreign service he served in the Navy, did relief work and taught in Lebanon. He graduated from Akron University.
Behrad Nakhai, BS, MS, PhD in Nuclear Engineering from The University of Tennessee Registered professional engineer.
Ahmad Sadri, currently professor and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Lake Forest College. BA and MA: University of Tehran, PhD: the New School for Social Research. He has published several books, including “Max Weber's Sociology of Intellectuals” (Oxford University Press, 1992, 1994.). Sadri is an active participant in the intellectual reform movement in Iran and was a columnist for the "Daily Star" of Lebanon.
Mahmoud Sadri is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas Womans’ University and author of Migration Dynamics: A Theoretical and Substantive Reader. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hamid Zangeneh, Ph.D., is Professor Economics at Widener University, Chester, Pennsylvania. His areas of specialization are Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, and International Economics. He has served as the treasurer and executive director of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis, CIRA. He is currently the editor of the Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis.
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