Monday, July 11th 2011

Rally against the Iranian Foreign Minister in Vienna

STOP THE BOMB and Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek protest against Spindelegger's reception of Salehi

On Sunday, April 25th, at 10 am, the STOP THE BOMB-coalition will protest against the reception of Iranian Foreign Minister Manutschehr Mottaki by Foreign Minister Spindelegger.
Nobel laureate in literature, Elfriede Jelinek, one of the first signatories of STOP THE BOMB's petition against economic deals with the Iranian regime, is appalled by the visit: "A state like Iran, that suppresses its domestic opposition (often including torture and executions), agitates against another country, the State of Israel, in Nazi-style, and threatens it with eradication, does not even meet minimal civilized standards of conduct. Welcoming one of the highest representatives of a state like this should be vociferously condemned."

Heribert Schiedel from Action against Anti-Semitism in Austria, who will speak at the rally on Sunday, notes that "Mottaki delivered the inaugural address at the 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Teheran. Gathered at this conference were the most prominent international activists propagating Holocaust denial, including Austrians Wolfgang Fröhlich and Herbert Schaller. The inaugural speaker of that Holocaust denial-fest now is to receive a warm welcome by Austria's Foreign Minister." Madeleine Petrovic, head of the Green party in Lower Austria, is equally appalled: "It is a slap in the face of Holocaust survivors when such a man is being invited by the Austrian government."

In an open letter to Spindelegger, Hiwa Bahrami from the Democratic Party Kurdistan-Iran asks: "How can you justify the invitation of the foreign minister of a terror regime to political prisoners, and to relatives of the men and women murdered by the regime, and also to the Austrian public? Instead of legitimizing the regime with such action, you should support the secular and democratic opposition in Iran."

STOP THE BOMB-speaker Simone Dinah Hartmann points to the fact that, despite its repression and anti-Semitism, Austria holds on to economic cooperation with the Iranian regime: "Austria is one of the few countries that throughout the last year have widened its exports to Iran. In 2009 commodities worth 350 Million Euros were exported to Iran, which amounts to a growth of 6% – while Austria's total exports dropped about 20% due to the economic crisis."

Sunday, April 25th 2010, 10 AM
Rally "Stop Ahmadinejad & Mottaki! Stop courting the Iranian regime!"
Minoritenplatz, 1010 Vienna