This article was recently published and I think you should all read it. Iran is stronger and better than ever it has been.
Khoda Neghahdar
Arvid
UK Artist-Iran Visit
British artist, Emily Jones has returned from a fact-finding mission to Iran, saying that the way forward in the dispute of Tehran's peaceful nuclear program was face-to-face talks.
"The aim of the delegation was to counter the quite hawkish attitude towards Iran and finding a non-violent solution to the current crisis," Jones said.
The artist was the only British member of a 23-man delegation organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation US (FOR), the Muslim Peace Fellowship (US) and the Justice Not Vengeance, based in Hastings, southeast England.
The 12-day visit, the second arranged by FOR in the last six months, met Iranians from all walks of life and conveyed the message that face-to-face dialogue rather than threats and intimidation, are the only solution to the current crisis.
"We went in order to bridge divides and show the British and American governments that the way forward through this political crisis is to sit in the same room and talk through difficulties face- to-face," Jones told the local Hastings Observer Tuesday.
The 41-year old artist said she was also creating pictures about Iran, past and present, and exhibiting them at the Electric Palace cinema, as part of an Iran season of films, during the Coastal Currents Arts Festival this September.
The delegation, comprising people of different faith traditions, traveled the country and met with representatives of religious communities, the media, academics and students, women's groups, and a variety of nongovernmental and social service organizations.
They visited cultural and historic sites in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and the holy city of Qom, held a meeting with Iranian media and delivered to the Iranian people thousands of handwritten messages of peace from ordinary Americans.
On their last full day in Iran last week, the delegation was also invited to a two-hour meeting with Iranian Vice President Dr.
Esfandiar Rahim Mashai.
FOR said the delegates found common ground with Dr. Mashai in the desire for increased dialogue and exchanges between Iran and the West.
"Our experience of Iranian society, the warm welcome of the people, and the hope for real dialogue, breaks down all the stereotypes that have been promulgated for the last 27 years," said American delegate David Robinson, director of Pax Christie.
"We return intent on dispelling this 'enemy' image -- an image that makes it easy to consider bombing them," said Robinson, who is director of the Pax Christie peace group.
FOR said that they hoped to brief members of the US Congress about their trip, to convey their conviction that there are peaceful options for defusing the current political standoff over Iran's nuclear program.