Region | Iran
Ebadi urges Iran to halt controversial nuclear activities
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called on the Islamic Republic yesterday to suspend sensitive nuclear activities to avert a 'serious' threat of a US military attack.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:27 November 20, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi attends the 'Yes To Peace, No To War' conference in Tehran.
Tehran: Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called on the Islamic Republic yesterday to suspend sensitive nuclear activities to avert a 'serious' threat of a US military attack.
"The drum beat of war can be heard very loudly," Ebadi told a conference of her rights group called "No to war, Yes to peace and human rights", urging all Iranians to support a national campaign aimed at preventing possible US military action.
Speculation has grown that the United States may launch air strikes against Iran over its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear activities, which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear work is peaceful. "Iran should respect UN Security Council resolutions and it means suspending uranium enrichment and resolving the dispute [on the nuclear issue] through talks," Ebadi told reporters after the conference.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has defied international pressure on Iran to suspend enrichment and branded Iranian critics of his nuclear policy 'traitors'.
Ebadi, a human rights lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, warned of an escalating crisis with the international community, saying "the threat of conflict is serious".
Her call on the Iranian leadership to review its hardline nuclear policy, echoed similar statements of the growing number of moderate leaders who believe Iran should return to suspending enrichment, the policy under former president Mohammad Khatami.
Iranian officials have dismissed the threat of US military action and Ahmadinejad has called it a US 'dream'. Iran says it is fully prepared to defend itself, warning Washington of a "quagmire deeper than Iraq".
Ebadi called on Iranians to join a "national peace campaign" to stop the war.
"This campaign will pressure the [Iranian] establishment to prevent a war by accepting international commitments ... and respecting UN resolutions," she said.
News Editor's choice
-
Ukraine leaders fight over Russian language
Violence erupts in Ukraine parliament over a bill to allow use of Russian language in courts, hospitals
-
CBSE: 100% success in many UAE schools
6,000 students from 53 schools meet grade expectations in examinations
-
'I can’t believe he is not going to come back'
Seventeen-year-old boy went missing in Dubai during a visit from Pakistan
