xmasdale
Angel - now passed away
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 1959
Location: South London
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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:23 am Post subject: Iran - UK crisis |
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Dear Friend,
We need to de-escalate the dangerous stand-off between Iran and Britain now.
Click below to sign the petition calling for Iran to release the prisoners and Britain to respect Iranian territorial waters. It will be delivered to each country's UN delegations on Friday:
Click Here
The Iran-UK crisis over the capture of 15 British sailors has gone on dangerously long. Wars can start like this -- we need to de-escalate the stand-off now. Click below to sign the petition calling on Iran to release the prisoners, and Britain to issue a clear statement of respect for Iran's territorial waters:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/irancrisis
Can we get to 50,000 signatures on this petition by this Friday April 6th? If so, we’ll deliver the petition to the Iranian and British UN delegations in New York.
We can show them that citizens around the world don't buy the PR: we want to see a sensible and quick resolution, not more grandstanding, map-waving or sabre-rattling.
With the West and Iran both running big military exercises in the Gulf this week, tensions are already too high. This needless crisis is blocking resolution of more important problems and bringing military confrontation closer.
Sign the petition and forward this email to your friends and family, and together we can raise a responsible global voice to defuse the crisis this week:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/irancrisis
With hope,
Ricken, Paul, Ben, Graziela, Iain and the whole Avaaz team
Do not hit reply to this email to unsubscribe. Please click on this link to unsubscribe from all future mailings. |
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Anthony Lawson
Validated Poster
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 370
Location: Phuket, Thailand
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| Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 11:07 am Post subject: |
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The Wording of the Avazz Petition
Hello xmasdale,
I hadn't seen your post (9:17AM), when I posted a copy of an e-mail I have just sent to Avazz under the heading:
Avaaz Petition Regarding Iran and Britain (posted at 10:22)
I am asking them to re-word the petition.
| Quote: | Hello,
Re: http://www.avaaz.org/en/irancrisis
I cannot agree with the wording of this petition.
I'm sure it is not meant to, but, apart from the reference to Britain making a statement about territorial waters, it reads like a demand written by an arrogant member of the British cabinet.
“Petition to UK Prime Minister Blair and Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei: We call upon Iran and Britain to take immediate action to defuse the current crisis. We call on Iran to release all 15 British prisoners, and on Britain to issue a clear statement of respect for Iran's territorial waters.”
Iran's relationship with Britain and the U.S. goes back a long way, and the country and its people have been marginalised, denigrated and looked down on by much of the rest of the world, at those nations' behest, for far too long.
Following constant interference in Iran's domestic affairs, before and since World War II, including the toppling of the democratically elected Mossadeq government, and the installation of a vicious monarchy, propped up by the CIA and the British Foreign Office in the interests of what is now British Petroleum, it is time to show some respect for the Iranian people, even if we cannot always agree with the posturing of their leaders, which are no worse than those of Bush and Blair, for example.
The following comes from a recent interview with Mark Weber, from the Institute of Historical Review.
"Iran has not attacked another country in more than two centuries, although it has been attacked by other countries repeatedly over the last hundred years. In 1941 two allies of the United States -- the Soviet Union and Britain -- attacked, invaded, and occupied Iran. In the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution, Iraq attacked Iran with the connivance and support of the United States. To denounce Iran as a great threat to world peace is not only untrue, it's amazing hypocrisy coming from an administration with the record that this one has." (No prizes are on offer for naming which administration Mr Weber is referring to.)
If I were an Iranian, I would be sure to know about how the U.S. and Britain had behaved towards me, my forebears and fellow citizens, in the past and in the present, including the instigation of the current threats of sanctions by the United Nations, and I would be offended and disappointed that an organization such as Avazz would petition my government in such terms, no matter my personal opinion of the individuals who comprise it.
I implore you to withdraw this petition and couch another in terms which reflect some sympathy for the Iranian people and the threats they seem to be constantly having to deal with. Tie it in with demands for the United Nations to stop harassing Iran and a nuclear energy programme which is at least five years away from producing a weapon—even if it intended to—while we all know that Israel already has about 200 of them.
I have already signed the Guantanamo Bay petition.
Sincerely,
Anthony Lawson |
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The truth won't set you free, but identifying the liars could help make the world a better place. |
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