Posts tagged : "Europe politics"

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Mário Nobre Lopes Soares is the 17th President of Portugal who served two terms in office from 1986 to 1996. He was also the nation’s Prime Minister from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985. At the time when the former dictator António de Oliveira Salazar was ruling Portugal, Soares diligently fought him and the dictator’s secret police PIDE that arrested him 12 times and expelled him to different countries. Soares is endowed with the highest-ranking military order of Portugal titled “Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit” which was created by King Afonso V in 1459. Mario Soares’s father João Lopes Soares was a minister, anti-fascist republican...

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Following the election of the moderate politician Hassan Rouhani as the Iranian President in the June 14, 2013 elections, the European countries have become more willing to interact with Iran on equal footings and based on mutual respect. In the recent months and following President Rouhani’s elections, several high-ranking European delegations and dignitaries have traveled to Iran, and it’s expected that more Western officials, including diplomats, politicians and lawmakers will be coming to Iran in the near future. The former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema was one of the dignitaries who traveled to Iran in December last year to hold meetings with senior Iranian officials, academicians...

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Former Spanish foreign minister Ana Palacio believes that the controversy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program should be solved through dialog and negotiations, and that a diplomatic solution to Iran’s nuclear standoff would be in everybody’s best interests. Palacio, who was the Spanish foreign minister under Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar from July 2002 to March 2004, said that despite the fact that Spain has been a traditional ally of the United States, her government “never subscribed to the ‘axis of evil’ approach.” “I arranged and conducted a state visit of King Juan Carlos to Syria and of President Khatami to Spain. I strongly believe that exchange, even a critical exchange, is...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: According to the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding, all the democratic states need free press and media and it’s a necessity for all the member states of the European Union to improve their press freedom record. “I believe that Europeans enjoy one of the freest and most diverse media environments in the world. But this does not mean we can be complacent. That is why in the past two years the Commission has stood up for freedom of the press and certain media practices in various countries such as Azerbaijan, Hungary, Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. A Europe without the freedom of press is inconceivable,” said Viviane Reding in an...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The vice-president of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship says that despite the efforts made by different legislative and executive bodies in the European Union to fight xenophobia and discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities, there are still instances of such discriminatory behaviors in the continent. “The European Commission has been active, for decades, in putting in place anti-discrimination laws and helping Member States who are the ones responsible for fighting discrimination on the ground... Sadly, despite this legislation, there still are instances of discrimination and xenophobia in Europe. Sometimes it is...

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The European Union’s high commissioner for humanitarian affairs believes that the responsibility of the humanitarian aid workers is an extremely sensitive, difficult and dangerous mission and in some conflicts, their work is as dangerous as that of a soldier fighting in the battle. “In some conflicts, to be a humanitarian worker is as dangerous as being a soldier and this danger is increasing. In Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, there is a surge in the kidnapping, wounding and killing of humanitarians. Nearly a hundred humanitarian workers have already been killed this year. Kidnapping incidents are also growing in number: Kidnapping is becoming a source of income in some...

Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: The European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response says that with the financial assistance of the European citizens, the EU Commission is providing humanitarian assistance and aid to more than 150 million people in more than 90 countries. According to Kristalina Georgieva, the civil war in Syria is the worst humanitarian disaster our world is experiencing, and that it will take many years for the crisis-hit country to recover and get back to normal situation. “I am afraid the situation will continue to worsen in the coming months. Even if a political solution were to be found quickly, the country has been virtually destroyed. It will take years before...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Tehran Times: Former Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin believes that the crisis in Syria should be solved through talks and diplomatic efforts, not the use of unilateral force by the external players. “All the efforts have to be sought in order to start the peace process in Syria. I think it’s not going to be facilitated by the use of military force from an external source. I think it should be assured that all the solutions for Syria should remain peaceful. A good move was the decision on the chemical weapons. I think that this is the first step that should continue and go on until finding a lasting solution, but again using military or paramilitary means is not going to be a good service to the...

Kourosh Ziabari - The fate of longstanding conflict over Iran's nuclear dossier, the duplicitous stance of the West towards the Israel's atomic program, the prospect of Iran – EU relations and the role of Iran in the world's political equations are the topics which the international community is immensely interested in knowing about. Josef Havlas is the ambassador of the Czech Republic in the Islamic Republic of Iran. During his diplomatic career, he served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Japan (1995-2000) and Ireland (2003-2008), as well as Deputy Director of the Dept. for External Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000-2003). He has been chairing the Czech embassy in...

Kourosh Ziabari - Today, most of the international relations analysts and experts consider China as the world’s second political and economic power after the United States. China came second in the International Monetary Fund’s 2011 ranking of countries by GDP (nominal) and is one of the main producers of agricultural products, industrial commodities and the world’s number one exporter of goods to other nations. China is also the United States’ first trading partner and at the same time, it’s major economic and political competitor. The politics of China are thoroughly complicated and in most cases, incomprehensible. National interests define the limits of China’s foreign policy while some traces of opposition to the Western...

  Kourosh Ziabari - Alexander Stille is a renowned American journalist and university professor. His father, Ugo Stille, was a renowned Italian journalist and former editor of the Milan-based leading daily Corriere della Sera. Alexander Stille graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is currently working there as a professor of journalism. He has written extensively on Italy domestic and foreign policies and has been a vocal critic of the former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, accusing him of corruption, accumulating illegitimate power and creating an unrivaled and uncontested media monopoly in the country. Stille has also written about the role of the Sicilian mafia in Italian politics and...