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Iranian Protester Pleads for More Int'l Pressure on Regime

By Philip Klein on 6.22.09 @ 5:25PM

CNN interviews an Iranian protester only going by the name "Mohammed," to protect his identity. He calls on the world to get tougher with the Islamic regime and even says the Iranian people want to accept Israel.

Transcript here.

A taste:

Mohammad: Yes. Let me tell you something. For about three decades our nation has been humiliated and insulted by this regime. Now Iranians are united again one more time after 1979 Revolution. We are a peaceful nation. We don’t hate anybody. We want to be an active member of the international community. We don’t want to be isolated… We don’t deny the Holocaust. We do accept Israel’s rights. And actually, we want — we want severe reform on this structure. This structure is not going to be tolerated by the majority of Iranians. We need severe reform, as much as possible.

Roberts: Interesting perspective this morning from Mohammad, a student demonstrator there in Tehran.

Mohammad: Excuse me, sir. I have a message for the international community. Would you please let me tell it?

Roberts: Yes, go ahead.

Mohammad: Americans, European Union, international community, this government is not definitely — is definitely not elected by the majority of Iranians. So it’s illegal. Do not recognize it. Stop trading with them. Impose much more sanctions against them. My message…to the international community, especially I’m addressing President Obama directly – how can a government that doesn’t recognize its people’s rights and represses them brutally and mercilessly have nuclear activities? This government is a huge threat to global peace. Will a wise man give a sharp dagger to an insane person? We need your help international community. Don’t leave us alone.

Chetry: Mohammad, what do you think the international community should do besides sanctions?

Mohammad: Actually, this regime is really dependent on importing gasoline. More than 85% of Iran’s gasoline is imported from foreign countries. I think international communities must sanction exporting gasoline to Iran and that might shut down the government.

View all comments (8) | Leave a comment

Mary| 6.22.09 @ 6:30PM

We don’t hate anybody. We want to be an active member of the international community. We don’t want to be isolated… We don’t deny the Holocaust. We do accept Israel’s rights. And actually, we want — we want severe reform on this structure.

I hope, with all of my heart, that this is true. These young men and women are inspiring! How beautiful the Iranian women are, and watching that young woman die right before our eyes will not be forgotten. Is her name really Neda?

The Iranians have a real shot at liberty, and they have an advantage as well in that I don't think they're decadent, yet they don't seem to be Luddites.

We could be watching the advent of a maturing liberty, of a liberty that can look to its own recent history and avoid certain mistakes: She's immortal, she has time.

Who knows in 75 years, Iran could be free and we could not be. Stranger things have happened.

In any event, if their hearts long for liberty and they're in fellowship with their neighbors, Godspeed!

I can't stop thinking of the phrase "fate lining her glove with lead."

Angel| 6.22.09 @ 7:40PM

Yes, her name was Neda--it means 'voice' in Farsi. How apt.

God bless her soul, she was a lovely young woman.

Mary| 6.22.09 @ 7:49PM

From Bibi’s speech and the sublime:

***Theodor Herzl, the visionary of the State of Israel, said: This is so big, we must talk about it only in the simplest words possible.

I now am asking that when we speak of the huge challenge of peace, we must use the simplest words possible, using person to person terms. Even with our eyes on the horizon, we must have our feet on the ground, firmly rooted in truth.***

To the profane, perhaps. Whatever his name is now, I liked Cat then.

Mary| 6.22.09 @ 7:54PM

Due cose al mondo non ti abbandonerano mai: Il cuore della mamma che ti seque sempre, e l'Occhio di Dio che ti vede ovunque.

Mary| 6.22.09 @ 7:58PM

That should read segue.

Liberal Reader| 6.23.09 @ 9:29AM

Reactionaries -- not surprisingly -- are full of bad advice on how Obama and the U.S. should respond to ongoing events in Iran.

Nothing unites Iranians -- left, right, and center -- more effectively than the memory of 1953, the year the U.S. backed the coup that installed the universally reviled Shaw in power.

Change in Iran can only come from Iranians. If these demonstrations have even the appearance of being planned in Langley, they will fail and the Mullahs will be vindicated.

The reason these protests have the potential of changing Iran is they are forcing the government into actions that undermine the perception that they have popular support -- something that has been crucial to the forces of the "Revolutionary" government.

If Obama were Bush and decided to give an "Axis of Evil" speech condemning the Iranian government, it would be a disaster for the cause of demoncracy in Iran.

Obama -- like it or not -- is handling this situation just right.

Iran is NOT Poland. When Reagan cheered on the Solidarity movement he was talking to people who shared religious and cultural ties with the west and who remembered America's involvement ON THEIR BEHALF in WWII.

With Iran, the situation is ENTIRELY different.

Don't let Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of these clowns fool you.