The reformist Presidential candidate turned opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi has officially spoken out against further economic sanctions. He joins the outspoken Mehdi Karroubi, who came out against sanctions earlier this month.
“We are against any sanctions against our nation,” Mousavi said in a statement posted on Rouydadnews reformist website.He said sanctions “will impose agonies on a nation who suffers enough from miserable statesmen.”
He added: “The country is on the verge of crises which will mostly hurt the poor as a result of wrong and adventurous foreign policies of the government from which our people suffer.
“We might have simplistically thought this is an advantage for our green movement, but it is not,” said Mousavi, who along with his green-wearing supporters regard President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as “illegitimate.”
“Which one of them can be expected to care about the agony their behaviour imposes on people?” he asked of Iran’s current leaders. “If we don’t care about what harms those living in this land, nobody will.”
Human rights advocates like Shirin Ebadi have argued that any new sanctions imposed against Iran should be targeted specifically at Iranian government officials, not Iran’s general population. Unfortunately, the primary tool the US Congress is considering is a refined petroleum embargo — just in time for winter. The IRGC probably won’t have any trouble getting gasoline or heating oil, but what about Iran’s poor and middle class, many of whom are out risking their lives to protest against the government?
The US should stand in solidarity with the Iranian people, not stand on their backs.