Delegation to Downing Street Warns Against Iran Attack
Westminster Committee on Iran | 12.06.2008 08:23
“Do the right thing and boost flagging poll ratings” –
Brown urged to take tough line with Bush on Iran
Brown urged to take tough line with Bush on Iran
A Downing Street delegation will today call on Gordon Brown to use his time with George Bush next week to warn the President against military intervention against Iran. A letter handed in by a cross-party group of parliamentarians to the Prime Minister argues that an attack on Iran in the absence of evidence of a nuclear weaponisation programme would be in breach of international law and would be as unconscionable and misjudged as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It also hints that standing up to Bush might help earn respect for the Prime Minister: “Not only would you be doing the right thing politically and morally, but you would cast
yourself as a principled and strong statesman, willing to stand up for
the interests of both Britain and the world.”
The delegation organised by the Westminster Committee on Iran and CASMII expressed concern that the US are planning to launch an attack on Iran before the end of the Bush term in office. Such an attack is seen as the next stage in the neo-Conservative programme for reshaping the region and would also increase the likelihood of a McCain presidency. The call for Gordon Brown to use his influence with Mr Bush is echoed by the influential Commons foreign affairs committee whose March report states that a military attack against Iran “would be unlikely to succeed and could provoke an extremely violent backlash across the region…We recommend that the Government urges Washington to consider offering a credible security guarantee to Iran if the Iranian government in turn will offer an equally credible and verifiable guarantee that it will not enter into a nuclear weapons programme and improves its co-operation with the international community in other areas”. (1)
Stefan Simanowitz, Chair of the Westminster Committee on Iran (2) said today:
“In the run up to the invasion of Iraq MP’s supported Blair’s policies on the mistaken belief that he was using his special relationship with the Bush administration to lessen the possibility of war. We now know that this was not the case. Gordon Brown has the chance to succeed where Blair failed: to curb Mr Bush’s appetite for military action and to promote a diplomatic resolution to the increasingly dangerous situation. We believe that over the remaining 220 days of the Bush presidency an attack on Iran is not just a real possibility but an imminent reality.
Without evidence of a weaponisation programme it cannot be claimed that Iran has breached any of its obliagations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treat. The IAEA have noted substantial progress in resolving outstanding issues that remain in the process of verifying the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme and have found no evidence of illegal diversion. We call on Mr Brown to take a strong principled stand and to help to prevent another illegitimate preemptive war in the Middle East which would lead to further destabilisation of the region and tragic loss of life.”
Professor Abbas Edalat, founder of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (3), said today:
" The UK and the European Union as a whole should take the lead in
calling for immediate, unconditional and comprehensive negotiations
between the US and Iran on all points of dispute in order to create an
opening for meaningful progress toward understanding, reduced tension in
the Middle East and a peaceful settlement of the present standoff.
Gordon Brown can mark his name in history by advocating this road to
peace when he meets George W. Bush on Saturday."
See The Independent 12/6/08:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-14yearold-suicide-bomber-845061.html
Delegation to No.10 - 12.45 – 1.30pm, Downing Street. Thursday 12th June
Contact the press office on 07799650791
Visit www.campaigniran.org
Notes:
1) Members of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee:
Mike Gapes (Chairman) MP, Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP, Mr Fabian Hamilton MP, Rt Hon David Heathcoat-Amory MP, Mr John Horam MP, Mr Eric Illsley MP, Mr Paul Keetch MP, Andrew Mackinlay MP, Mr Malcolm Moss MP, Sandra Osborne MP, Mr Greg Pope MP, Mr Ken Purchase MP, Rt Hon Sir John Stanley MP, Ms Gisela Stuart MP .
2) The Westminster Committee on Iran is not a campaigning organisation per se nor is it an official parliamentary body or All Party Parliamentary Group. Instead it aims to fill the space between these two types of bodies in order to increase dialogue, understanding and trust between parliamentarians in Tehran and the rest of the world. On 25th January 2008, Anders B. Johnsson, General Secretary of the UN’s Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva wrote: “…the objectives of the Westminster Committee on Iran coincide with those of the IPU, which promotes dialogue to foster understanding and avoid conflict.”
3) CASMII is an independent campaign organisation with the purpose of opposing sanctions, foreign state interference and military intervention in Iran.
yourself as a principled and strong statesman, willing to stand up for
the interests of both Britain and the world.”
The delegation organised by the Westminster Committee on Iran and CASMII expressed concern that the US are planning to launch an attack on Iran before the end of the Bush term in office. Such an attack is seen as the next stage in the neo-Conservative programme for reshaping the region and would also increase the likelihood of a McCain presidency. The call for Gordon Brown to use his influence with Mr Bush is echoed by the influential Commons foreign affairs committee whose March report states that a military attack against Iran “would be unlikely to succeed and could provoke an extremely violent backlash across the region…We recommend that the Government urges Washington to consider offering a credible security guarantee to Iran if the Iranian government in turn will offer an equally credible and verifiable guarantee that it will not enter into a nuclear weapons programme and improves its co-operation with the international community in other areas”. (1)
Stefan Simanowitz, Chair of the Westminster Committee on Iran (2) said today:
“In the run up to the invasion of Iraq MP’s supported Blair’s policies on the mistaken belief that he was using his special relationship with the Bush administration to lessen the possibility of war. We now know that this was not the case. Gordon Brown has the chance to succeed where Blair failed: to curb Mr Bush’s appetite for military action and to promote a diplomatic resolution to the increasingly dangerous situation. We believe that over the remaining 220 days of the Bush presidency an attack on Iran is not just a real possibility but an imminent reality.
Without evidence of a weaponisation programme it cannot be claimed that Iran has breached any of its obliagations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treat. The IAEA have noted substantial progress in resolving outstanding issues that remain in the process of verifying the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme and have found no evidence of illegal diversion. We call on Mr Brown to take a strong principled stand and to help to prevent another illegitimate preemptive war in the Middle East which would lead to further destabilisation of the region and tragic loss of life.”
Professor Abbas Edalat, founder of the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (3), said today:
" The UK and the European Union as a whole should take the lead in
calling for immediate, unconditional and comprehensive negotiations
between the US and Iran on all points of dispute in order to create an
opening for meaningful progress toward understanding, reduced tension in
the Middle East and a peaceful settlement of the present standoff.
Gordon Brown can mark his name in history by advocating this road to
peace when he meets George W. Bush on Saturday."
See The Independent 12/6/08:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-14yearold-suicide-bomber-845061.html Delegation to No.10 - 12.45 – 1.30pm, Downing Street. Thursday 12th June
Contact the press office on 07799650791
Visit www.campaigniran.org
Notes:
1) Members of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee:
Mike Gapes (Chairman) MP, Rt Hon Sir Menzies Campbell QC MP, Mr Fabian Hamilton MP, Rt Hon David Heathcoat-Amory MP, Mr John Horam MP, Mr Eric Illsley MP, Mr Paul Keetch MP, Andrew Mackinlay MP, Mr Malcolm Moss MP, Sandra Osborne MP, Mr Greg Pope MP, Mr Ken Purchase MP, Rt Hon Sir John Stanley MP, Ms Gisela Stuart MP .
2) The Westminster Committee on Iran is not a campaigning organisation per se nor is it an official parliamentary body or All Party Parliamentary Group. Instead it aims to fill the space between these two types of bodies in order to increase dialogue, understanding and trust between parliamentarians in Tehran and the rest of the world. On 25th January 2008, Anders B. Johnsson, General Secretary of the UN’s Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva wrote: “…the objectives of the Westminster Committee on Iran coincide with those of the IPU, which promotes dialogue to foster understanding and avoid conflict.”
3) CASMII is an independent campaign organisation with the purpose of opposing sanctions, foreign state interference and military intervention in Iran.
Westminster Committee on Iran
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12.06.2008 11:58
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel "has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene."
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader's statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel's famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran's holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar's chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett's reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: "He said, 'I'm not interested in the next quarter. I'm interested in the next 20 years.' " Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your "employees" are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I'd short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it's in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel's currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. "If you sleep on the floor," he likes to say, "you never have to worry about falling out of bed."
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel's M.I.T., told me: "In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel."
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can't develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn't worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran's economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel's economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel's economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran's is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I'm with Buffett: I'll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
info giver
stuff
12.06.2008 11:59
Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel "has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene."
By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader's statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel's famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.
Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran's holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar's chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett's reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.
Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: "He said, 'I'm not interested in the next quarter. I'm interested in the next 20 years.' " Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your "employees" are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.
So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I'd short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.
Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it's in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel's currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.
The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.
The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. "If you sleep on the floor," he likes to say, "you never have to worry about falling out of bed."
That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.
Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel's M.I.T., told me: "In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel."
Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.
Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.
Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can't develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn't worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.
Iran's economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel's economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel's economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran's is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.
So who will be here in 20 years? I'm with Buffett: I'll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
K
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