Growing Anti-War Sentiments in Iran

Iran's Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi today called on the Iranian government to suspend its uranium enrichment activities and urged all Iranians to support a national campaign aimed at preventing a military conflict with the US.

“The drum beat of war can be heard very loudly,” Ebadi told a peace and human rights conference in Tehran. “Iran should respect UN Security Council resolutions and it means suspending uranium enrichment and resolving the dispute through talks.”

Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and the leader of Iran’s Freedom Movement, also attending the peace conference in Tehran, said the government should consider people’s will and avoid a war.

“Enrichment is not a matter of national security for Iran,” said Yazdi. “We should mobilize people against the war and put pressure on the government to change its nuclear policy… By suspending enrichment, we can avoid war.”

Ebadi’s call for a “national peace campaign” is the boldest move yet inside Iran to force the government to abandon its confrontationist nuclear policies.