Welcome to ICFTO

After the recent illicit remarks made by the Supreme leader of the Mullahs who during a meeting with the Iraqi president asked him to expel the residents of Ashraf, in an unprecedented move on March 13th, Iraqi forces surrounded one of Ashraf's buildings and used force and bullying tactics in an attempt to evacuate hundreds of residents of the building, mostly women. This is an extremely urgent situation and we are all very concerned.

There is an urgent peaceful Sit-in called on, starting from Monday March 16th 2009 in front of the Iraqi Embassy in London at 9 Holland Villas Road to express our outrage over the new conspiracy by the Iranian government's proxies in Iraq who intent to hurt and have Ashraf dissidents extradited to Iran.

Following the Supreme leader of the Mullahs meeting on the 28th of February restricted measures against Ashraf have exceeded dramatically and the Iraqi National Security Advisor – Mouwaffaq Al-Rubaie who is the authority responsible for the Iraqi forces around Ashraf- and a known agent of the Iranian government- ordered its forces to stop all lorries and trucks carrying logistical goods, fuel and even medicine to Ashraf. Since March 12, Iraqi forces have prevented any commodity or even fuel from entering Ashraf and turned back trucks carrying logistics. Moreover, 150 Iraqi workers, six vendors who procured Ashraf logistical needs and seven trucks carrying commodities have been barred from entering Ashraf. The Iraqi forces have also prevented families of Ashraf residents from going to the camp and visiting their families. The new measures raise very serious concern about the intentions of the Iraqi forces who have openly said they intend to close Ashraf.

We urge all our friends to join us at the Sit-in to protest the new measures and to prevent this human catastrophe. This will have an effective impact on the destiny of the dissidents in Ashraf as we have had it in the past 5.5 years.

Our demand is that the security of the camp must be returned to the American forces who based on the International law are responsible for the safety of these dissidents, as it was prior to the transfer of security to the Iraqi authorities who have proved not to be acting independent of the Mullahs.

We also urge you to help us in promoting this campaign among friends and relatives, media, etc in any way you can. The writing points could be:

- Condemning the recent actions by the Iraqi authority in force evacuation of the building where women are residing, and an immediate stop on all such activities.

- Asking for guaranteed protection of Ashraf residents based on the principle of non-refoulement, the Geneva conventions and all International laws, thus the protection of Ashraf must be reinstated to that which was in place before January 2009, i.e., the U.S. forces be tasked with the protection of Ashraf.

- Demanding an immediate seizure of all restrictions imposed by the Iraqi authorities on supply of medicine, logistics and fuel, etc in to the city or the limitations on Iraqi workers or agents from entering the city who are trying to assist the residents or are working in Ashraf.

This is extremely urgent.

Please address your letters of concern to all the following bodies:

The president of the United States of America, Honourable Barack Obama, Fax: 001 2020 456 2461

The secretary of states, Hon. Hillary Clinton, Fax: 001 202 261 8577 or 001 202 647 6040

ICRC

C/O British Red Cross, 44 Moorfields, London, EC2Y 9AL, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

UNHCR

Hon Navanethem Pillay, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland or by Email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sit-in Venue: Opposite Iraqi Embassy, 9 Holland Villas Road, W14 9BP

Time: 10 AM to 2 AM, Daily (working days)

Please forward your letter/email/etc.. also to our email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The International Committee for the Third Option (ICFTO) was founded on 13 March 2007. We believe that the greatest threat to current world peace is fundamentalism and more specifically Islamic fanaticism that with terror and violence is using innocent people as a means to achieve its political goals.

The heart of this fundamentalism is in Iran under the control of the Mullahs who direct all matters of extremism whether by financial or ideological means. If until some time ago it was only the main Iranian opposition who warned against this major threat, now no day passes that the international media does not report of a bombing, abduction, murder or assassination. On most occasions either immediately or within a short period of time the evidence always points to the involvement of the Iranian regime itself or its proxies and mercenaries in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan. The result of this has been the loss of innocent lives in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, London, Spain, Afghanistan, Indonesia, USA, Argentina, Morocco, Saudi Arabia… and this loss of lives will continue into the future. 

What is the solution? Is it a further war with the ruling Mullahs and aiming at the heart of the monster? No. This would give them the desperate legitimacy to expand their fanaticism and recruit less informed Muslims, also giving them an open hand to misuse the sentiments of millions of young Muslims to forward its political goals. Significantly, there will also be a catastrophic loss of human life as a result.

Is appeasement and further dialogue with the Mullahs the solution? This is a longer road towards collision with the Mullahs of Iran that will be unavoidable. The only benefit from this policy of appeasement is that the Iranian regime is given more time to complete their nuclear ambitions and therefore create a new international power balance where there will be a higher prominence for destruction and even the threat of a third world war. We can also see from the fact that the Iranian regime is so much in support of such a policy that this policy is clearly of advantage to them.

There is a third option. (Confrontation with the ruling Mullahs in Iran through democratic change by the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement.) Confrontation with the ruling Mullahs in Iran through democratic change in Iran based on a democratic and tolerant Islam that seeks democracy in Iran and peace and friendship in the entire world. This option is available to us and it is the only peaceful solution to this threat.

Objectives of this Committee are as follows:

1. To form an ad-hoc umbrella for Iranian associations with the aim of assisting their activities in helping the victims of the violation of human rights in Iran
2. To provide a cultural umbrella to promote Iranian customs and culture, away from the extremist ideas of Islamic fanaticism
3. To initiate a cultural and educational public information campaign about the threats of Islamic fanaticism and the way of dealing with it.
4. To promote the Third option as the only viable and peaceful solution against the spread of Islamic fanaticism.