This article was last updated on May 21, 2022
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‘Officials don’t represent people’
A group of academics, including the spokesperson for the Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, have issued a statement in which they “categorically” condemned recent remarks made by Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi.
Last Tuesday, during a speech at an anti-drug conference in Tehran, Rahimi blamed the Talmud for the expansion of illegal drugs around the world, saying the “Zionists” were responsible for the world’s major drug trade.
The Iranian academic figures dismissed Rahimi’s comments as “baseless allegations” and “historically inaccurate, morally reprehensible, and politically contrary to the interests of the nation and government of Iran.”
“It is shameful that these individuals persistently ignore their duties to the people of Iran and become conduits of propagating tired conspiracy theories emanating from idiotic minds,” they continued.
“Such allegations are certain to add to the risk of crippling embargos and to increase the threat of military attack on Iran.”
The signatories said that the “overwhelming majority” of Iranians had “made it clear that they do not recognize the present government of Iran and its functionaries as their representatives on the international arena.”
Rahimi is one of the high-ranking officials in the Ahmadinejad administration who has been linked to one of the largest cases of financial fraud in Iran’s history.
Full text of the statement
We the undersigned, categorically condemn the speech of Mr. Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s vice president in the UN-sponsored international anti-drug conference in Tehran on June 26, 2012. These baseless allegations that include the responsibility of the book of Talmud for today’s international illegal drug trade and genocide are historically inaccurate, morally reprehensible, and politically contrary to the interests of the nation and government of Iran. It is shameful that these individuals persistently ignore their duties to the people of Iran and become conduits of propagating tired conspiracy theories emanating from idiotic minds. Such allegations are certain to add to the risk of crippling embargos and to increase the threat of military attack on Iran. The overwhelming majority of the Iranian people, by their widespread and globally witnessed protests against the stolen elections of 2009 have made it clear that they do not recognize the present government of Iran and its functionaries as their representatives on the international arena.
Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, Professor, Shahid Beheshti University
Hamid Dabashi, Professor, Columbia University
Nader Hashemi, Assistant Professor, University of Denver
Mohsen Kadivar, Visiting Professor, Duke University
Ali Mirsepasi, Professor, New York University
Mansoor Moaddel, Professor, University of Michigan
Ahmad Sadri, Professor, Lake Forest College
Mahmoud Sadri, Professor, Texas Woman’s University
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