Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

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Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) is a group of people, especially academics, students and professionals of both Iranian and non-Iranian backgrounds whose aim is to advocate against war and sanctions, especially as they pertain to current United States-Iran relations. The group opposes "sanctions, foreign state interference and military intervention in Iran" by the United States. The United Kingdom (UK) branch of CASMII joined with two other groups with similar aims, Action Iran and Iran Solidarity, forming a group with the name Campaign Iran, which is now considered to be the UK component of CASMII.

1 History and aims
2 Actions
- 2.1 Action Iran
3 Reaction to UN Security Council Resolution 1737
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History and aims

Action Iran was created by Roudabeh Shafie early in 2005 as a small London-based anti-war group campaigning against military intervention in Iran.^[1]. One of its founding members was Roudabeh Shafie.^[2]. The group described its primary aims as raising "public consciousness of the detrimental effect of rhetoric and policies of military intervention on political, social and economic democratization in Iran", highlighting what it called the "illegitimacy of any attacks on Iran", campaigning for what it described as "a legitimate international course of action with regards to Iran's nuclear energy programme", and working "in partnership with other anti-war and peace movements to campaign against military intervention in the region and against nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and beyond." Roudabeh Shafie and Alex Callinicos described the group as not only having the single aim of opposing a would-be attack on Iran, but also ^[3] "stressing the importance of the social, democratic and national movements with Iran".

CASMII itself was officially founded on December 1, 2005 in London, and describes itself as independent in the sense that "CASMII is independent of all political groups and governments, in particular the Iranian government, and adheres to no particular religion or ideology. Our core values include respect for human rights and a democratic state, in particular freedom of expression, freedom of press, an independent judiciary, equal rights for women, ethnic and religious minorities in Iran."^[4]

A third group, Iran Solidarity, was a United Kingdom based news and education online publishing group which claimed that "Iran and its people have the right to freedom from the bombs and guns of the U.S. administration and it's[sic] allies" and said that it aimed to present facts which are "unrepresented in the mainstream media".^[5]

On November 6, 2006, the United Kingdom (UK) branch of CASMII joined together with Action Iran and Iran Solidarity, forming a new organisation in the UK called Campaign Iran, which remains part of CASMII international.^[6]

[edit] Actions

The group's campaign methods include participation in media, holding public meetings, lobbying members of parliaments, international campaigning and cooperation with all groups sharing similar aims. In November 2006, the group participated in a multi-state "Tour for a Just Foreign Policy" which was a series of speaking engagements as well as photographic displays throughout the Northeastern USA.^[7]

[edit] Action Iran

On February 6, 2006, Roudabeh Shafie representing Action Iran participated in a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration outside of the headquarters of the BBC, claiming that the BBC presented biased reporting regarding Iran by not reporting alleged violations by nuclear weapons states of Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.^[8]

On March 18, 2006, Action Iran members including Roudabeh Shafie participated in a major anti-war demonstration in London.

On June 10, 2006, Elaheh Rostami Povey represented Action Iran at the Stop the War Coalition's "Fifth Annual Stop The War Conference" ^[9].

On September 6, 2006, an Action Iran spokesperson took party in a rally in Manchester promoting a later rally called "Time To Go" advocating the resignation of British prime minister Tony Blair^[10] and later in the month, Action Iran together with CASMII organised a public rally with Hans von Sponeck, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq after Denis Halliday resigned from that post, ^[11]

[edit] Reaction to UN Security Council Resolution 1737

In reaction to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737, CASMII issued a statement titled "A Terrible Day for International Diplomacy"^[12] dated December 24, 2006. In the statement CASMII expresses grave concern over the UN resolution. It characterizes the unanimous verdict as having been engineered by the US stating "As the Observer reported last Sunday, the US is giving up to 270% more foreign aid to Security Council members as incentive for them to support US positions." The statement further argues that the resolution could be abused and taken as a justification for war, just like the 2002 resolution -also unanimously passed- was used as an eventual justification for the US/UK invasion of Iraq. The statement also "notes" that "there may actually be no way for Iran to comply with the UN demands," saying "Just as the repeated American demands for more and more intrusive inspections, for opening up of Saddam’s palaces and interviewing Iraqi scientists did not satisfy America’s suspicions; neither will Iran’s 'compliance' with these demands be ever sufficient to 'prove' the non-existence of a WMD program."