The Foundation for Democracy is concerned by the refusal of the Iranian government to condemn wanton terrorist acts such as the recent bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, that are clearly aimed against innocent civilians. Senior Iranian government officials and the official Iranian media have extended a level of support to the groups and individuals responsible for these terrorist attacks which is unprecedented in civilized discourse.
Following the twin bomb blasts in Ashkelon and Jerusalem that killed 25 people on Feb. 26, Iran's state-run radio praised the use of violence against Israel and encouraged further attacks. "The sharpening of the expansionist policies of the Zionist regime... have strengthened the belief among Palestinians that boosting armed struggle is the only way to liberate the occupied territories," Tehran radio commented.
The official Iranian News Agency called the latest bombings in Jerusalem on Sunday (18 dead) and Tel Aviv on Monday (12 dead, 105 wounded) "divine retribution," and gloated that "Israel, the only state in the world to be created by terrorism and brutal use of force, is now tasting its own medicine."
Similarly, when Iranian Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was slain by a Jewish extremist in Tel Aviv last November, Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani called Rabin's death "divine revenge" for Israel's alleged killing in Malta of Fathi Shiqaqi, the leader of Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group responsible for numerous attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Iranian Parliament has authorized payments up to $100 million per year to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and other groups opposing the Middle East peace process, since 1989. Iranian leaders object that they view these groups as engaged in a legitimate struggle of resistance against foreign occupation.
The Foundation for Democracy calls on Iranian President Hashemi-Rafsanjani, on the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, and on the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, to publicly denounce the use of terrorism against civilian targets in clear and unequivocal terms, and to provide assurances that the Iranian Parliament and all other organs of the Iranian leadership and government have ceased funding terrorist groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director (exec@iran.org). FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org/.