Monday, September 21st 2009
Rally against Ahmadinejad in Vienna
STOP THE BOMB protests against the UN-address of the Iranian President
The alliance STOP THE BOMB is organizing a rally under the motto "Stop Ahmadinejad – No support for the Iranian regime" in front of the opera building in Vienna on Wednesday, 23 September at 5 p.m. The rally is directed against the UN-address of the Iranian President on the same day and it will coincide with world-wide protests, e.g. in New York and Brussels. In Vienna, one of the residences of the United Nations, STOP THE BOMB wants to use this occasion to protest against the politics of appeasement towards the Iranian regime as well as the economic support of the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The rally is supported by various groups including the Democratic party of Kurdistan Iran, the Greens "andersrum" Vienna, the Liberal Forum and the Jewish community. Among others, Marco Schreuder of the Green Party Vienna, Peter Florianschütz of the Social Democratic party Vienna, the President of the Jewish community Ariel Muzicant and Hiwa Bahrami of the Democratic party of Kurdistan Iran, will deliver a statement at the rally.
On Tuesday, September 22, i.e. the night before the rally, the Iranian sociologist Saba Farzan will be giving a lecture on the current situation in Iran and the possibility of a policy of sanctions against the regime. This event will take place at the "Republikanischer Club" in Vienna, starting at 7.3o p.m.
STOP THE BOMB urges harsh, extensive, and consequent sanctions to put pressure on the regime in Teheran. The nuclear armament of this regime, which poses an existential threat to Israel and which also threatens the West and the Iranian people, has to be averted. The spokesperson of STOP THE BOMB, Simone Dinah Hartmann, stresses the aim of the protests: "Austria is currently a member of the Security Council of the United Nations. If it does not want to continue collaborating with the Iranian Regime and thereby supporting its policy of brutal suppression and the development of the Iranian bomb, the least what the Austrian government can do is to prohibit businesses of Austrian enterprises which are endorsing the Iranian regime and it has to push for including the Revolutionary Guards in the list of terrorist organizations of the European Union."
Hiwa Bahrami of the Democratic party of Kurdistan Iran criticizes that the European head of the conservative party (OEVP) Ernst Strasser announced a meeting with the Iranian ambassador in Vienna Ebrahim Sheibany at the very same day of Ahmadinejad’s UN appearance: "Instead of flattering represenatives of the regime one should seek a dialogue with the democratic and secular opposition."
