Iran Focus
London, 23 Sep – On Thursday, the UN welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to speak before the General Assembly. In her September 23 article for the Toronto Sun, Candice Malcolm quotes former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as she writes that, the UN is a platform where “democratic leaders sit side by side with despots and dictators.”
Iran’s President Rouhani presents himself to democratic leaders not as a despot, but as a “moderate”, persuading the United States, and other countries to make the Nuclear Deal with him in 2015. Billions of dollars flooded into Iran, who used it to bankroll the Assad regime in Syria.
Instead of concessions on human rights abuses and cessation of military aggression by Iran in the region, Iran continues to perpetuate war, persecution, and a flagrant disregard for basic human rights.
Malcolm writes, “Like every other corrupt tyrant at the United Nations, Rouhani received the royal treatment. He was given a platform to lie and misrepresent his own government.”
Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, Iranian human rights activists hosted a gathering to condemn Rouhani in a large protest, revealing the dark side of the Iranian regime. They demanded justice for those killed by the Iranian regime during the summer of 1988.
Some 30,000 political prisoners were executed during just a few months, that summer. Political prisoners were rounded up, who tended to be people whose sympathies didn’t lie with the regime, and systematically mass murdered.
Malcolm attended the protest, and spoke with Geoffrey Robertson, a human rights lawyer and former appeal judge at the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone. Robertson said that “killing prisoners of war is the worst kind of war crime,” noting that Iran’s massacre was the worst since WWII. He added, “There has been no reprisal, no retribution, unlike the other, similar, atrocities. The people who ordered it, most of them, are still in high command in Iran.”
Actually, Rouhani himself was a senior official in the government that oversaw the massacre.
Former Senator Joe Lieberman spoke at the protest, calling the Iranian regime a “brutal dictatorship.” Lieberman told Malcolm in an interview, that the international community should treat Iran the same way that we treat North Korea. He said that “there is more blood on the hands of the regime in Tehran,” and added, “Rouhani should not be treated as if he was a respectable world leader. He should be treated like Kim Jung Un would be treated if he came here.”
However, Rouhani was welcomed by the international community.
Malcolm notes that, “Canada’s Global Affairs Minister Stephen Dion noted on Twitter that he met with the regime to discuss the status of their relationship and consular cases. Dion failed to note any discussion on human rights, terrorism or justice for those killed in the 1988 massacre.”
The United Nations was founded after the Second World War to promote international co-operation, and to ensure that another such conflict, particularly horrors like the six million Jews being exterminated at the hands of the Nazis, would never happen again. The UN was established to identify, condemn and stop crimes committed against humanity.
“This week, instead of identifying and condemning Iran for its wicked crimes, the United Nations looked the other way and gave a seat of honour to the world’s most despicable leader,” Malcolm concludes.
