Link the nuclear program to human rights
Shirin Ebadi and Muhammad Sahimi
Tribune Media Services International
THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2006
TEHRAN Lost in the international fury over Iran's partial restart of its nuclear energy program and the deplorable statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding Israel is the fact that respect for human rights and democracy are the most effective deterrent against the threat that any aspiring nuclear power, including Iran, may pose to the world. When the United States and its allies encouraged the shah to start Iran's nuclear energy program in the 1970s, at a time when it had no economic justification, they helped create the Frankenstein that ultimately became Iran's current nuclear program.If, instead, they had pressed the shah to undertake political reforms, respect human rights and release Iran's political prisoners, history could have been very different. รข€¦
Continued at International Herald Tribune
