National Peace Council Begins Its Work

To Prevent War

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Just two months after 72 Iranian pro-peace personalities signed a peace drive, the ‎founders of the National Peace Council held their second meeting. At the meeting, the ‎activists ratified the charter; the general assembly voted its executive operatives and ‎inspectors, thus officially launching the group.‎

Fifteen individuals were elected from the members of the general assembly to act as the ‎executive board which is mandated to run the group’s affairs, except those identified by ‎the general assembly. Hashem Aghajari, Babak Ahmadi, Habibollah Peyman, Jalal ‎Jalalizadeh, Taghi Rahmani, Issa Saharkhiz, Abdoll-FatahSoltani, Hossein Shah-‎Hosseini, Seyed-Ali Salehi, Keyvan Samimi, Abdollah Momeni, Hossein Mojahed, ‎Narges Mohammadi, Baizid Mardookhi, and Fatemeh Motamed-Aria were elected as the ‎members of the executive board, while five others, Hossein Akbari, Mohammad Sadegh-‎Rabani, Kurosh Zaeem, Soraya Aziz-Panah, and Parvin Kahzadi were elected as ‎substitute members.‎

In addition, Ezatollah Sahabi, Abbas Abdi and Dawood Hermidas-Bavand were elected ‎as the principal inspectors of the organization, while Mohammad Khaksari, and Jhila ‎Shariatpanahi were elected as substitute inspectors.‎

Issa Saharkhiz, a regular contributor to Rooz, and now a member of the executive board ‎of the Peace Council said that members to the group was open to anyone, regardless of ‎their political leanings, adding, “Anyone who is concerned about peace and is interested ‎in preventing the country from getting into one, can become a member.”‎

Last February as tensions between the US and Iran reached levels that had produced fears ‎that military action against Iran was a real possibility, Shirin Ebadi, Iran’s only Nobel ‎laureate announced the creation of a temporary peace committee and called on all Iranian ‎to participate in efforts to prevent such a war.‎

The Peace Council has set four goals for itself: the creation and strengthening of the ‎foundations for peace, human rights and continues development in Iran; preventing any ‎military, terrorist and violent action against Iran; activities to remove any sanctions ‎against Iran and prevent their strengthening, and; ending the atmosphere of ‘no war and ‎no peace’ that is in air.‎

The individuals forming this group include critics of the government, professional ‎journalists, commentators, women activists, former government officials, human rights ‎activists, lawyers, university academicians, and political activists.‎