This will be an attempt to open up debate about the Iranian situation, which is currently always presented as a choice between bombing or appeasement of the current regime. The main organizer, Mahi, has supported the Iranian opposition group the NCRI/PMOI (People's Mojahedin of Iran) for more than 30 years. However, the sponsoring organization, SDME, which she recently set up, is intended as an all-party and no-party group which will lobby for democracy in Iran and possibly further afield in the Middle East. The current Lord Mayor of Oxford, Susanna Pressel will be opening the meeting, and Oxford City Council is supporting the event. There will be two speakers from the NCRI/PMOI, Hossein Abedini (see below) and one other, tbc. Green Councillor Nuala Young will be chairing the meeting.

BACKGROUND: The NCRI/PMOI is currently the largest and arguably best organized of the Iranian opposition groups, and in May this year the PMOI were finally removed from the UK list of proscribed (i.e. terrorist) organizations after years of lobbying. They are very keen to be seen as a 'normal' political party, and we hope that this meeting on October 20, a 'first' for Oxford, will be a small step towards that goal.
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PRESS RELEASE

Invitation to a Debate on Iran: A Way Forward


Oxford Town Hall, Monday 20 October 08, 7.00pm


With the American Presidential election now imminent the future direction of western policy towards Iran becomes an ever more urgent issue. To many of us who are concerned with the safety and security of the Iranian people, indeed of the whole region, it seems increasingly crucial to find a way forward, one whereby violent action is avoided, yet which at the same time avoids any further appeasement of a notoriously authoritarian and intolerant regime which denies the basic human rights of its own people. It is not easy to see the way forward. Hence for some, selective bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, or alternatively, conceding to Iran’s right to energy security appear to be the only realistic options.


In the belief that these issues need to be addressed in the UK’s foremost university city which has sired many political leaders over the centuries, we have invited Mr Hossein Abedini, a prominent Iranian human rights activist, an expert on contemporary Iranian politics and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran to be the keynote speaker at the meeting and present his alternative solution to ‘the Iran problem’. Mr Abedini’s proposals will be the launch-pad for a spontaneous debate in which other specialists on Iran as well as the audience are invited to participate. We believe that between us we will achieve progress in finding ‘the way forward’, and we guarantee a lively, informative and highly relevant debate.

The evening will also include Iranian music and an exhibition of Iranian art, and end with the distribution of Iranian sweets and refreshments.


I look forward to welcoming you to our event.




Society for a Democratic Middle East