In an interview last week with Radio Zamaneh, a Persian language broadcaster based in the Netherlands, Ebadi made clear that she fears the major powers are about to sell out the Iranian people in order to get what they want in the nuclear field.
The talks will be held later this month between Iran on one side with Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States—on the other side. Those Big Six powers are often called the P5+1.
Ebadi said, “The negotiations of the P5+1 with Iran were limited to nuclear issues, and the champions of human rights forgot that, as in other countries, the Iranian people have had their rights violated, which needs to be focused on in international negotiations about Iran’s situation.”
Ebadi told Radio Zamaneh: “Nuclear negotiations should not overshadow the issue of human rights violations in Iran, and the West should not look out only for its own security at the price of overlooking the security of the Iranian people, because human rights is an international issue, and any country that believes in the tenets of human rights should support it.
“I and other human rights activists have said on many occasions that the West’s negotiations with Iran, especially those of the P5+1, should not be monopolized by nuclear talks, but rather human rights issues should also be on the agenda.
“Unfortunately, as soon as the P5+1 countries, who claim to be supporters of human rights and have issued several announcements in this regard, reach serious negotiations, they never mention human rights and do not pay any attention to the legitimate and legal demands of the Iranian people.”
Ebadi challenged the assumption that nuclear issues are an international risk while human rights violations occur only within a country. She said: “Human rights are by no means just an internal problem; they reach beyond borders and are, in fact, an international issue.
“Whenever the Iranian government is reprimanded, it has two stock answers: first, that human rights are also violated in the West and especially in the United States—and they always conveniently forget to mention China.
“And their second answer is that the arrest of journalists and social activists, the oppression of free speech, the blocking of internet sites, censorship and human rights violations are domestic issues that do not concern other countries.
“However, in response to this assertion, we must stress that human rights is not an internal issue and is, in fact, an international matter.
“According to the very reasoning and logic that gives the Iranian government the right to protest cases of human rights violations in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, other countries, including the United States, have the right to protest against human rights violations in Iran.”
Ebadi seemed almost as angry at the Western powers as she is at the government of the Islamic Republic, as she made clear she fully expects the West to abandon the Iranian people.
“The only thing that is of concern for the negotiating countries is their own national interests, and the talks have been held with complete indifference to human rights issues,” she said.
“This should be especially said of the United States, since Hillary Clinton and President Obama have on many occasions announced their support for the people of Iran and human rights in Iran, but judging from their negotiations and interviews, it appears that these issues have remained on the level of mere talk.”
News reports from Tehran have indicated for years that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi has a very different take on what the West is doing. People who have reportedly spoken with him say he is reluctant to make a deal with the Big Six on Iran’s nuclear program because he expects the West will then just shift to some other issue—most probably human rights—with which to flay the Islamic Republic.
Ebadi also commented on what will result from the lifting of sanctions, saying: “There is no doubt that the economic sanctions have vastly harmed the Iranian people, and the lifting of sanctions would hopefully give them some reprieve.
“But would it not have been more honest and honorable if, next to nuclear negotiations, the situation of human rights in Iran had been given some attention, and in addition to nuclear agreements, they would at least call for more co-operation between the Iranian government and the United Nations, so that Ahmad Shaheed, the special human rights rapporteur, would be given permission to travel to Iran?”
Asked if the rapporteur’s trip to Iran would bring about any meaningful change, Ebadi said: “I know that Mr. Ahmad Shaheed’s trip to Iran will bring about no miracles. Just as the visits of the former rapporteurs, that is Mr. Galen DePaul and Maurice Capitorne’s visits, brought about no miracles.
“But even if his visit does not result in the release of political prisoners, it could improve their situation behind bars. Today there are no divisions in prisons based on the nature of the offences committed by the inmates; there isn’t appropriate space for the prisoners; they do not have sufficient basic facilities such as warm water, fresh air and other necessities.
“Even if the release of political prisoners remains out of the question, they can at least demand better conditions for them inside the prisons. But as we see, even these minimal demands are forgotten.”
Ebadi speculated that the Big Six “may be trying to make another North Korea out of Iran, and this is of grave concern. When the [UN] peace ambassador for Syria [Kofi Annan] travels to Iran in order to resolve the internal disputes in Syria and establish peace between Mr. Bashar al-Assad and the people of Syria, we should ask ourselves: why is the West giving legitimacy to Iran’s military power?
“Why should Mr. Kofi Annan go to Iran in order to mediate in the internal matters of Syria? This act legitimizes Iran’s interference in Syrian domestic affairs, and everyone appears to be fine with this.
“Such actions by those who are champions of international rights are inexplicable. They are basically saying that they accept that Iran, as a military power in the region, interferes in the political affairs of other countries. Such acts make us wonder if they are trying to make another North Korea out of Iran,” Ebadi said.
Few analysts, however, viewed Annan’s trip to Iran as legitimizing what Iran is doing in Syria, seeing it simply as recognizing that Iran had a power role in Syria.