June 5-7 2009
Speeches presented by Edinburgh branch members at the UNA-UK Annual National Conference held in Edinburgh June 5th,2009.
1.
Professor Dabir Tehrani gave a brief talk on the motion about the weapons containing depleted uranium as follows:
Depleted uranium is:
• A toxic and radioactive compound (U238).
• 8 kg of natural uranium: 1 kg of U235 and 7 kg of U238 (DU)
• Very dense & 75% radiation, 1.7 times that of lead, but very hard.
Used in dart shape armor piercing munitions:
• by the US and the UK in the 1991Gulf War and in Iraq 2003 war.
• in Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo
Emits radioactive dust that can travel many kilometers.
• Readily inhaled into lungs, bones, brain and testes.
• Observed sharp increase in the incidence of some cancers in areas of Iraq following 1991 and 2003 wars.
In 2007:
• Belgium banned all weapons containing uranium.
• The Italian government agreed to pay €170m compensation for personnel exposed to DU in the Balkans.
22 May 2008 - Strasburg
EU Parliament Resolution, approved by 94% of MEPs, called on all EU-States and NATO countries to have moratorium on uranium weapons.
December 2008:
The UNGA ordered the WHO, IAEA and UNEP to update their positions on the health and environmental threat and to return the issue to the GA in 2010.
April 2009:
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed to fund ICBUW for DU research projects.
15 April 2009 - Belgium’s Senate voted to ban the financing of companies that manufacture or sell uranium weapons. This legislation will come into force on June 20th this year.
Motion for UNA-UK
UNA-UK calls on the UK Government to:
(i) recognize concerns about the serious health effects caused by weapons containing uranium;
(ii) support and act upon the EU Parliament Resolution calling for an EU-wide moratorium on uranium weapons, and
(iii) work towards a global ban on their manufacture, storage and use.
The motion was approved unanimously by the UNA-UK Conference.
2.
IRAN
Good Morning
I am Alec Gaines (Speaking on this occasion on behalf of Edinburgh UNA)' Our friends in UNA-IRAN will be e-mailed a copy of what I am saying)
I am sitting on the floor with Yadollah's family at his father's house on the outskirts of Tehran near where one can see the Army Barracks. The ten year old boy sitting next to me tries out his English. "Are you Christian ?" "Do I seem strange ? (I reply)" There is a pause. "I am frightened". I pass round photographs of my family.
Anyone living in Iran would be justified in feeling frightened. To the south one faces two US Aircraft Carriers in the Gulf, possibly bearing nuclear weapons. Round the corner in the south of Turkey is the NATO airbase at Incirlik. Last time I was there, there were four British warplanes, a dedicated US U4 reconnaissance aircraft and a host of US bombers; when challenged, both Turkey and NATO HQ have always refused to deny there were nuclear bombs on the airbase. To the north are the Russian nuclear bases and to the north east there are the Pakistani. At the other end of the Middle East, Israel possesses nuclear weapons and on several occasions this year has urged that Iran be attacked.. Iran WAS attacked , of course, by Iraq, who used missiles obtained from the west. One can still see bomb sites in Tehran.
So what should Iran do? How should she be prepared to defend herself ? How should the Middle East be secure ? WE haven't offered to sign a defence agreement. We haven't said that an attack on Iran would be considered an attack on Britain (No, don't grin, that's what we say for NATO members - such as next door Turkey). Put yourself in Iran's situation; what would YOU do?. What would Britain do were she in Iran's shoes ? That's really what this resolution is attempting to achieve: that as normal humans we should not attack each other but try and work with other normal humans to solve common problems. It’s what we have been trying to get the FCO to understand.
In fact for many years - since 1974 - Iran has been propounding a Nuclear Weapons Free Middle East , a concept of which the FCO approves, and the senior Iranian cleric has pronounced a Fatwa against nuclear weapons. Iran states she has complied with everything the IAEA has asked for.
Recently El Bareida has suggested that Iran would stop only just short of putting a nuclear weapon together. We are not soft on Iran. Your Board Member for Scotland and I visited UNA-IRAN early this year where we led Workshops for NGOs on International Education, Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights. We were working together and it was exhilarating. That was January, in February, the Iranian Foreign Minister addressed the UN Disarmament Conference. He emphasised Article VI of the NPT and the need for the Nuclear Powers to move towards nuclear disarmament. It could have been UNA-UK talking.
We are civilised and laid back; we are perfectly prepared to accept the Board and WAC Amendment - provided the Board understand that we shall be trying to work with UNA Iran; we are trying to spread understanding There is nothing particularly bold about our resolution. Permit me to read you part of a letter from Bill Rammell, the FCO Minister of State with responsibility for our relations with Iran: "Dear Mark (that’s one of Edinburgh's MPs - a member of the All Party UN Group) We fully support the improvement of understanding between the UK and Iran including through initiatives such as those of Dr Donn and Dr Gaines. The Foreign Secretary has said on a number of occasions that the UK has no hostility with Iran and that we would like to support and promote improved relations between the people of Iran and the UK…" Consistent with this the British Museum displayed a wonderful exhibition of Iranian artefacts and here in Edinburgh there has been a festival of Iranian films. However, as you know, we impose sanctions on Iran; we isolate Iran from our banking system. Inability to access Northern Rock, RBS and HBOS is supposed to put pressure on the Iranian regime. In Iran we found Internet banking with Barclays and several banks in the Gulf States to be perfectly possible. Since sanctions have been applied, funding herself from her oil revenue, Iran has started a car industry and is looking at an aeroplane industry. The judgement of our government is unsound.
Your Board wishes “to hold Iran verifiably to its stated rejection of a nuclear weapons capability.” We wish also to hold the FCO verifiably to its stated intention of promoting improved relations between the people of Iran and the UK.
Thank you.
Selaam Aleichum.
Dr Alec Gaines
3.
UNA UK Annual Conference, Edinburgh June 2009
Iran
Notes clarion calls for military action against; calls for call for UK, international community to heed Iran’s OWN statements, hold them to them, and resist, deny support for, military action.
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For some time we’ve been hearing calls for military action against Iran, ostensibly to destroy it’s nuclear facilities.
Our concern in this motion is to press our own government to resist calls for military confrontation with Iran on the pretext of its ‘nuclear programme’. Iran is consistent in saying they need nuclear energy, and reject nuclear weapons. Whatever their past history of concealment, it is possible they really mean what they say - and should be held to that. They signed the NPT, after all.
We believe it is at least courteous to listen carefully to what someone says for themselves, and take them seriously, rather than only heeding accusations about them levelled (at high volume) by other parties with their own agendas.
To sift substance from style and rhetoric, hype and accusation from underlying agendas, is not easy - especially where Iran is concerned. Yet we believe it is important to try. That is one reason why UNA Edinburgh has been developing links with UNA Iran, to hear their perspective on issues of common concern, and in doing so we have learned a lot. Our Iranian friends may look like Ahmadinajad, but most certainly do not sound like him! Gari and Alec visited Tehran earlier in the year, and will be very happy to share their experiences with you.
Iran has legitimate concerns, as any other nation, about relations with their neighbours and further afield. After all, they have to live with Afghanistan on their eastern border, and Iraq to the north. Cooler American heads realised that there is more to be gained by trying to work with Iran rather than against it. For instance, in 2004 Z Brzezinski, and Robert Gates co-chaired Council of Foreign Relations, Independent Task Force [report ‘Iran: Time for a New Approach’] which recommended ‘selective engagement with Tehran’. President Obama prefers engagement rather than conflict and has offered talks with Iran. (US embassies are now encouraged to invite Iran’s representatives to their 4th of July events, though they are only allowed ‘small talk’, not substantive discussions - yet. ) . We believe this is to be welcomed and encouraged.
The previous, more Reformist, Iranian administration was among the first to offer condolences after 9/11. Iran also assisted US operations in Afghanistan in 2001 against the Taliban, and made a significant contribution to the success of the Bonn Conference in December 2001 which got an Afghan government up and running. Their ‘reward’? - the ‘axis of evil’ speech in 2002.
In 2003 Iran offered US a Grand Bargain, [Parsi, Treacherous Alliance p 341] to address all outstanding issues between Iran and US. The Swiss delivered it, but the timing was unfortunate; it landed on a Pentagon desk in May 2003, and was summarily dismissed by Rumsfeld (or was in Cheney) who were intent on war with Iraq at the time.
Elections come and administrations and policies change - Iran’s presidential election is on June12. Hopefully another opportunity is emerging to try and resolve outstanding issues without military actions. Iran has shown interest in resolving issues by negotiation, (albeit under a previous president) though they may be more suspicious now, given their treatment by GW Bush.
This needs careful and patient diplomacy, and we want to urge our own government also to choose the route of serious diplomatic engagement.
What is the alternative? To quote from a recent study by Anthony Cordesman et al [May 2009] ‘The chances of an attack by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities being ‘successful’ are at best dubious, while the risks and consequences seem overwhelming, not only for Iran, but also for Israel, the stability of the Middle East, and for the US as well’.
I ask you to support this statement - diplomacy and engagement, please, not another Iraq
Thank you.
Liz Sim
4.
UNA UK Annual Conference, Edinburgh June 2009
Motion on Israel/Palestine: calls for Israel’s ‘friends’ to hold Israel to same standards as any other nation on requirements of international law, agreements made, or else sanctions will follow.
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This statement is not antisemitic, nor anti Israel
Rather, it seeks to save a dysfunctional Israel from itself.
It is a call end to the ‘exeptionalism’ which has allowed Israel to ignore the requirements of international law, agreements entered into, and Security Council resolutions, to pick and choose what to implement and what to ignore.
It does seek to hold Israel to the standards requires of any responsible nation, or else know that consequences will follow.
Yesterday morning the Chief Rabbi , Jonathan Sacks, reminded R4 listeners that it is now 42 years since the 6-Day War. It took Israel only 6 days to win a war, he said, but have failed to win peace 42 years (or over 60 if you start from the Nakhba/War of Independence)
For too long Israel’s ‘friends’ have turned a blind eye, give uncritical (often un-informed) support, or provide a shield - diplomatic as well as military. But over-indulgent friends, like over-indulgent parents, ultimately do no favours to those whom they indulge. Eventually the child goes too far and there are tears, recriminations.
Even so, Israel is still responsible for her own actions.
Since events in January, both in Gaza and in the US, moods are changing.
What happened in Gaza sent shock waves around the world, not least in the US, and among Jews both in the Diaspora and in Israel itself, with its very complex social and religious mixture.
‘Grass-roots’ civil society around the world is already responding as they did against apartheid in S Africa, with DBS - boycott, divest (from investment in Israel) and sanctions campaign; there are also cultural and academic ‘boycotts’
It seems that Israel too is suffering from shock of a new and different kind. America is saying NO! Enough! Amongst other things, the new President doesn’t support ‘Balfour Mk 2' - the private agreement by which GW Bush essentially gave Ariel Sharon carte-blanche to build settlements. Chickens are coming home to roost, and Israel is feeling vulnerable and fragile in a new way.
Maybe Israel’s over-indulgent friends let her down - but successive Israeli governments, by their cavalier attitude to the rule of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, their behaviour towards the Palestinian people, and more, have also betrayed those friendships, which must change or fracture.
I’m told that Aristotle said ‘We need friends to keep us from error’; that’s the sort of friends Israel needs now, to hold Israel to account, as they would any other nation, if they have Israel’s real best interests at heart as well as their own. If you like, it’s the tough love that friends owe each other.
And if Israel does not respond, she must realise that the indulgence has ended - appropriate sanctions will surely follow - for example on trade and funding, supply of arms, cooperation in various fields. Israel must no longer be immune.
I end by quoting Desmond Tutu (Gdn 23 May): ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality’.
So please support this motion and statement, and make the elephant move its foot.
Liz Sim
5.
UNA UK Annual Conference, Edinburgh June 2009
Motion calling for West/ME Dialogue instead of isolation, in particular with Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbullah, as best option to resolve tensions
We are already witnessing significant changes of policy and style from US, with President Obama clearly wanting to major on dialogue based on mutual respect instead of on military action as the best way to resolve conflict situations, especially in the ME.
The next challenge for President Obama will be to get his words and intentions put into action,
The UK has learnt in N Ireland that conflicts are not resolved by armed force, but ultimately by dialogue, and that dialogue will not succeed unless all parties to the conflict participate in the dialogue, be it indirect or (ultimately) face to face.
The NI process did not move forward until IRA Sinn Fein was drawn in. - but the IRA used to be labelled ‘terrorist’.
It’s very easy to say, ‘we won’t include them - they’re terrorists’, and so exclude those we don’t want to talk with, or listen to, or whose argument we fear might be stronger than our own. But that solves nothing, and only allows the core issue to get worse.
NI (and S Africa) has demonstrated that there can be no meaningful progress towards resolving a conflict unless ALL parties are involved in the dialogue. That means including, not excluding, those like Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah, whom we may not ‘like’ at all. But we aren’t asked to ‘like’ them, only to rise to the challenge of listening to them and entering into dialogue with them..
From NI and SA we’ve also seen that even long-standing issues and injustices can be resolved through dialogue, given enough patience and commitment all round.
Sorting out and resolving the conflicts in the Middle East and tensions between the Middle East and the West will present huge challenges.
It won’t be easy, quick - but I believe it can be done. It must be done - and ultimately dialogue is the only safe way to do it - for all our sakes.
Please support this statement
Thank you.
Liz Sim
The Annual National Conference of the UNA-UK was held in Edinburgh at the
Pollock Halls of Residence. The London report appears at this link.
www.una.org.uk/annualconference2009.html
photos added under "Photo tab" above
Prof. Dabir.H.Tehrani of Edinburgh addressing the conference.
Speeches presented by Edinburgh branch members at the Annual National Conference of the UNA-UK held in Edinburgh June 5th,2009 can be found under the "UNA-UK Annual National Conference June 2009" tab above