Interviews

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: One of Norway’s most popular politicians, former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is probably the world’s first statesman who admitted that he suffered from depression while in office. For his honesty and willingness to speak of his psychological disorder, Bondevik was commended and received thousands of letters offering support. Bondevik was Norway’s prime minister from 1997-2000 and 2001-2005. He is currently president of Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, which he founded in 2006, and works closely with the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the Carter Center and the Crisis Management Initiative. The Oslo Center is tasked with engaging in conflict resolution plans, peace meditation and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: We usually don’t find it making the headlines, but Iceland is a nation that has struggled with the question of whether to join the European Union (EU) or not. It has historically played a significant role in regional developments and made important contributions to security and democracy in Europe. Along with Haiti, Mauritius, Monaco, Panama and Vanuatu, Iceland is one of few countries that have no standing army but a limited military. It has been Iceland’s policy to not maintain an army since 1869, however, it is an active and founding member of NATO and joined the Atlantic coalition in 1949. Iceland is an official candidate to join the EU, even though its former foreign minister, Jon Baldvin...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: The terrorist attacks in France earlier this month, which resulted in the death of 17 people, has prompted a heated debate over free speech and religious intolerance. Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine that was targeted in Paris on January 7, has a long history of publishing controversial cartoons, especially those of Prophet Muhammad. The attack on the magazine’s office attracted global sympathy. World leaders from over 40 countries gathered in Paris and marched to show solidarity and express their strong support for freedom of speech. Leaders of Muslim-majority countries condemned the terrorist attacks and made it clear that such acts have no place in Islam. However, the circumstances...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: With the rise of the terrorist group ISIS in the Middle East and its intensified campaign against the peoples of Iraq and Syria, which is resulting in increased insecurity and instability in the already-turbulent Middle East, more attention is being paid to the role of Iran in leading a regional front for fighting violence and extremism. Although Iran was not officially included in the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, there are many American politicians and academicians who lay emphasis on the importance of Iran’s contribution to the global battle against terrorism and believe that the U.S. government’s decision to exclude Iran was wrong. The role of Iran in addressing the concern of violence and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The First International Conference on World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) held in Tehran on December 9-10 last year following the endorsement of President Hassan Rouhani’s proposal for the establishment of a global front against terrorism and extremism was a landmark event in the final days of 2014 in Tehran and brought together hundreds of government officials, diplomats, peace activists intellectuals, scholars and academicians from some 40 countries to the Iranian capital. The big international gathering underlined the leading role Iran has been playing in confronting terrorism and violence in the Middle East, especially following the rise of the terrorist group ISIS in Iraq and Syria and...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The First International Conference on World Against Violence and Extremism (held on December 9-10, 2014) was an opportunity for hundreds of public figures, including politicians, diplomats, intellectuals, academicians, religious leaders and thinkers of more than 40 world countries to come to Tehran and discuss one of the most pressing and sensitive issue of the 21st century with each other: terrorism and extremism. The debate on violence and extremism has become more heated and controversial with the rise of the terrorist cult ISIS, which has established a self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, and harbors inauspicious plans for dominating larger parts of the Middle East and even...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The proposal made by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to the UN General Assembly to form a global coalition against violence and violent extremism has received widespread commendation across the world and was adopted as a resolution by the General Assembly on December 18, 2013 with the unanimous vote of the member states. Iran is now seen as the forerunner of fighting terrorism and extremism, even though it’s located in a geographic region that is replete with ethnic and religious tensions, frequent uprisings and social unrest, shattered with incessant foreign military intervention. The Conference on World Against Violence and Extremism was held in Tehran on December 9-10, 2014. It brought hundreds of...

Kourosh Zibari: David Barsamian, a leading Armenian-American radio journalist, believes that as a result of the good performance of alternative press, young Americans don’t pay attention to the propaganda of the corporate, mainstream media anymore. David Barsamian, who is the founder and director of Alternative Radio broadcast from Boulder, Colorado, says the journalists in the United States don’t need to be censored or monitored by the government, because they are accustomed to a full-fledged self-censorship. Mr. Barsamian says that the US government orchestrated a large project of media propaganda against its own people to rationalize and justify its illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq: “f course the case of Iraq is very instructive...

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: The International Conference on World Against Violence and Extremism was held in Tehran from December 9-10 to honor the proposal put forward by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in his speech at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly regarding the exigency of forming a global coalition to fight the growth of extremism and radicalism across the globe. In his address to the 68th session of the UN General Assembly, President Rouhani underlined the fact that the Middle East has been burning in the fire of extremism and violence for a long time as a result of the presence of forces that are not genuinely concerned about the wellbeing and tranquility of the people living in the region; forces...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: A prominent Danish politician believes the conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the sovereignty of Crimea is threatening the security of Europe. According to Speaker of Danish Parliament Mogens Lykketoft, Denmark is ready to comply with the European Union’s (EU) punitive measures against Russia and, at the same time, encourages the promotion of political and economic stability in the crisis-hit Ukraine. A respected politician, Lykketoft has presided over the Danish parliament since 2011, and had previously served in the government of Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as the finance minister and minister of foreign affairs. In his capacity as an intellectual, Lykketoft has authored and...

Kourosh Ziabari: A leading American intellectual an anti-war activist believes that the United States is the most serious threat to the world peace and that the US government is a major terrorist entity. Bill Ayers says, according to the most standard and reliable definitions of terrorism, "US is indeed a terrorist nation." He adds, "It’s also the greatest purveyor of violence on earth over the past half century, and the foremost threat to world peace today." Bill Ayers, a retired professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, believes that despite its destructive and dreadful impacts on the livings of American people and other nations across the world, the US imperialism is "in a decisive...

Kourosh Ziabari: Ismael Hossein-zadeh, a renowned political economist, believes that the US government, inextricably connected to the pro-war lobbies, is always in need of concocting new enemies to be able to justify its military aggressions across the world. Prof. Ismael Hossein-zadeh notes that the "militaristic US planners" need pretexts to carry out the “National Security Strategy” of the post-Cold War world through waging wars, selling weapons and making significant profits. "The monstrous attacks were treated not as crimes but as “war on America.” Once it was thus established that the United States was “at war,” military buildup and imperialist aggressions followed accordingly," said Prof. Hossein-zadeh. "As the...