Open Letter to Federica Mogherini

 
An Open Letter to Federica Mogherini and the European Imperative to Save the Iran Nuclear Deal

14.05.2018

Ms. Federica Mogherini

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy European Commission

Berlaymont

1049 Brussels

 

We, the undersigned, thank you for your speech on 8th May 2018, pledging the European Union’s intention to remain steadfast in its commitment to the historic accord concluded between Iran and the E3/EU+3, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Too often, politicians have inclined to patronise and admonish, but, instead, you opted for a “universal language” of respect and dialogue. You proclaimed that “[t]his deal belongs to each and every one of us”, and that it enjoins us not to “let anyone dismantle this agreement”. But despite such salutary remarks, in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s public announcement to withdraw from the JCPOA and re-impose sanctions on Iran, the survival of the agreement is far from assured.

The majority of Iranians have demonstrated their heartfelt support for this hard-won diplomatic accord. They have shown their support through their two-time election of a president promising to initiate constructive dialogue with the world, patiently awaiting the outcome of a long and arduous series of negotiations despite the debilitating impact of sanctions on their everyday lives, celebrating in the streets of major Iranian cities when the JCPOA  was successfully agreed upon, and finally, announcing their approbation of the agreement in over 100 cities across the globe in the weeks and months that followed.

In your speech you stated that “the European Union will remain committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the Nuclear Deal”. We wholeheartedly welcome this commitment, but as you are fully apprised, it is crucial that Europe is able to discharge its international obligations and ensure, despite U.S. sanctions, that Iran and its people enjoy the full economic and political dividends promised according to not only the letter, but also the spirit of the JCPOA. The IAEA has repeatedly verified Iran’s compliance and honouring of its commitments under the agreement, and this ought to be reciprocated in turn.

In an increasingly unstable global climate and ever-more precarious “age of extremes”, it is essential that one of the great diplomatic successes of the 21st century not find itself carelessly squandered. By your own estimation it took some twelve years for this agreement to be reached. If Europe in coordination with its Russian and Chinese partners prove unable to salvage the JCPOA, the likelihood of further instability in the region and even war increases exponentially.

While the JCPOA showed that diplomacy is possible, in view of recent events and President Trump’s reneging on the accord, the message to the world shouldn’t be that peace is inevitably transient and short-lived. For every one of us who is committed to fostering peace through reasonable dialogue and mutual understanding, preserving the integrity and viability of the JCPOA is of inestimable importance. Trust in the European Union, UN Security Council and wider international community is at stake, as well as their credibility to tackle many of the enormous challenges which lie ahead in the years to come.

The Iranian people backed peace and diplomacy. Now it is the responsibility of the international community to demonstrate that they made the right decision and that the promises that were made will be carried out and effectively realised. Failure is not an option. The alternative path is simply too costly, not only for the present generation, but for posterity as well.

 

Name	Position	Affiliation
Judith Butler	Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature	UC Berkeley
Noam Chomsky	Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics Emeritus	MIT
Cornel West	Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy	Harvard University
David Harvey	Distinguished Professor	The Graduate Centre, CUNY
Charles Taylor	Professor Emeritus in Philosophy	McGill University
Peter Singer	Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values	Princeton University
Slavoj Žižek	International Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities	Birkbeck, University of London
Fredric Jameson	Knut Schmidt Nielsen Professor of Comparative Literature	Duke University
Donna J Haraway	Distinguished Professor Emerita	UC, Santa Cruz
Richard Falk	Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus	Princeton University
Wendy Brown	Class of 1936 First Professor in Political Science	University of California Berkeley
Nancy Fraser	Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor	New School for Social Research
Talal Asad	Distinguished Professor in Anthropology	The Graduate Centre, CUNY
Ervand Abrahamian	Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Iranian and Middle Eastern History and Politics	Baruch College, CUNY
Joan Wallach Scott	Professor Emerita, School of Social Science	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ
Hamid Dabashi	Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature	Columbia University
Taraneh Alidoosti	Iranian actress
Jacqueline Rose	Professor of Humanities and Co-director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities	Birbeck, University of London
John Mearsheimer	R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science	University of Chicago
Ilan Pappé	Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies	University of Exeter
Mahmood Mamdani	Herbert Lehman Professor of Government MESAAS, International Affairs, and Anthropology	Columbia University
Juan Cole	Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History	University of Michigan
Abdolkarim Soroush	Iranian intellectual and theologian
Ali Mirsepassi	Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies / Director of Iranian Studies Initiative	NYU
Asef Bayat	Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Mohsen Kadivar	Research Professor in the Department of Religious Studies	Duke University
Cumrun Vafa	Donner Professor of Science	Harvard University
Avi Shlaim	Emeritus Professor of International Relations	St Antony’s College, Oxford
Touraj Atabaki	Senior Researcher, International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus and Chair of the Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia	Leiden University
Omid Safi	Professor of Asia and Middle Eastern Studies	Duke University
Gerald Horne	Moores Professor of History	University of Houston
Farid Esack	Professor in the Department of Religion	University of Johannesburg
Shlomo Sand	Professor Emeritus	Tel Aviv University
Norman Finkelstein	Independent Scholar of Israel/Palestine
Joel Beinin	Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History	Stanford University
Abdolreza Kahani	Iranian film director
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam	Professor in Global Thought and Comparative Philosophies	SOAS, University of London
Homa Katouzian	Iran Heritage Foundation Research Fellow	St Antony’s College, Oxford
Karma Nabulsi	Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations	St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi	Professor of History & Sociology	University of Illinois
Owen M. Fiss	Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law	Yale Law School
David Priestland	Professor of Modern History	University of Oxford
Shirin Neshat	Visual Artist	New York, USA
Mehrzad Boroujerdi	Professor of Political Science	Syracuse University
Nader Hashemi	Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and an Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics	University of Denver
Trita Parsi	President	National Iranian American Council
Lord John Alderdice	Director of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict	Harris Manchester College, Oxford
Farhad Khosrokhavar	Professor of Sociology	Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France
Stathis Kalyvas	Gladstone Professor of Government	All Souls College, Oxford
Ebrahim Moosa	Professor of Islamic Studies	University of Nortre Dame
Timothy Mitchell	William B Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies	Columbia University
Richard Bulliet	Professor Emeritus in Middle Eastern History	Columbia University
Vijay Prashad	Public intellectual and author	Tricontinental
Jairus Banaji	Professorial Research Associate	SOAS, University of London
Aziz Rana	Professor of Law	Cornell University Law School
Paul R. Pillar	Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Center for Security Studies	Georgetown University
Abdel Razzaq Takriti	Associate Professor & Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Arab History	University of Houston
Kiumars Pourahmad	Iranian film director
Ali Akbar Mahdi	Lecturer in Sociology	California State University, Northridge
Mohammad Jamal Samavati	Iranian Musician and Ethnomusicologist	Sheyda Ensemble
Mahmoud Sadri	Professor in Sociology	Texas Woman’s University
Niki Akhavan	Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communication Studies	Catholic University of America
Robert Buzzanco	Professor of History	University of Houston
Toby C. Jones	Professor and Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies	Rutgers University
Fatima Tofighi	Assistant Professor & EUME fellow	University of Religions, Qom and Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin
Walter Armbrust	Albert Hourani Fellow & Associate Professor in Modern Middle Eastern Studies	St Antony's College, Oxford
Mani Haghighi	Filmmaker and Actor
Cemil Aydin	Professor in the Department of History	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ziba Mir-Hosseini	Professorial Research Associate, Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law	SOAS University of London
Richard Tapper	Professor of Anthropology	SOAS, University of London
Sajjad Rizvi	Associate Professor of Islamic Intellectual History and Islamic Studies	University of Exeter
Nayereh Tohidi	Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Director of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies	California State University, Northridge
Hossein Khosrojerdi	Artist and Designer	London
Zuzanna Olszewska	Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of the Middle East	University of Oxford
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi	British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Oriental Studies	St Cross College, Oxford
Parviz Tanavoli	Artist and Scholar
Sheila Carapico	Professor, Political Science and International Studies	University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
Bashir Saade	Lecturer in Religion and Politics	University of Stirling
Bijan Khajehpour		Atieh International, Vienna
Carool Kersten	Reader in the Study of Islam & the Muslim World	King's College London
Christopher de Bellaigue	Historian and former Iran correspondent for The Economist
Ashk Peter Dahlén	Associate Professor in Iranian Languages	Uppsala University, Sweden
Farrokh Negahdar	Political Analyst and Activist
Masoud Behnoud	Journalist and Author
Rudi Matthee	John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History	University of Delaware
Hadi Jorati	Expert Consultant	Library of Congress
Kevan Harris	Assistant Professor in Sociology	UCLA
Adnan Tabatabai	Co-founder and CEO of CARPO - Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient	Bonn, Germany
Mahmud Farjami	Independent scholar, author and stand-up comedian
Arash Eshghi	Lecturer in Computer Science	Heriot-Watt University
Kaveh Ehsani	Assistant Professor of International Studies	DePaul University, Chicago
Fatemeh Shams	Assistant Professor of Modern Persian Literature	University of Pennsylvania
Daryoush Ashouri	Public intellectual and author
Norma Claire Moruzzi	Associate Professor in Political Science & Gender Studies	University of Illinois, Chicago
Sussan Siavoshi	Cox Professorship in Political Science	Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Roham Alvandi	Associate Professor of International History	London School of Economics and Political Science
Mamak Khadem	Musician/ Mathematics Instructor	California, USA
Mohammad Ali Ardebili	Professor of Criminal Law	Shahid Beheshti Law School, Tehran
Nahid Siamdoust	Postdoctoral Associate & Lecturer in Iranian Studies	Yale University
Mania Akbari	Film maker and Artist	London
Mohammad Azadpur	Professor of Philosophy	San Francisco State University
Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar	Professor, Department of Political Science, Director, Middle East Studies Program	Santa Barbara City College, CA
Hossein Kamaly		Middle East Institute, Columbia University
Khodadad Rezakhani	Associate Research Scholar	Princeton University
Maziar Behrooz	Associate Professor in History	San Francisco State University
Dörthe Engelcke	Senior Research Fellow	Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Fereshteh Ahmadi	Professor in Sociology	University of Gävle, Sweden
Hani Khafipour	Associate Professor of Iranian Studies	USC
Giuseppe Acconcia	Department of Politics and International Relations	University of Padova
Danny Postel	Assistant Director, Middle East and North African Studies Program	Northwestern University
Arzoo Osanloo	Associate Professor, Department of Law, Societies, and Justice	University of Washington
Barbara Slavin	Director of the Future of Iran Initiative	The Atlantic Council
Azam Ali	Singer/Composer	California, USA
Arang Keshavarzian	Associate Professor Middle Eastern Studies	NYU
Adam Sabra	Professor and King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud Chair in Islamic Studies	University of California
Farhad Dokhani	PhD Candidate in History and Middle East Studies	Harvard University
Mazen Masri	Senior Lecturer in Law	City, University of London
Rouzbeh Parsi	Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Human Rights	Lund University
Paola Rivetti	Assistant Professor, School of Law and Government	Dublin City University
Morteza Hashemi	Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Social Anthropology	University of Edinburgh
Rasmus Christian Elling	Associate Professor in the Department of Cross-Cultural & Regional Studies	University of Copenhagen
Sophia Mihic	Professor in Philosophy and Political Science	Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
Nadeem Rezavi	Professor of History	AMU, India
Edward R. Shapiro	M.D. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry	Yale Child Study Center
Lucie Ryzova	Senior Lecturer in Middle East History	University of Birmingham
Alireza Doostdar	Assistant Professor, Divinity School	University of Chicago
Babak Rahimi	Associate Professor of Communication, Culture and Religion	UC San Diego
Farhang Rouhani	Associate Professor in Geography	University of Mary Washington
Hassan Hakimian	MBI Al Jaber Reader in Economics and Director of London Middle East Institute	SOAS, University of London
Marta Bolognani	Research Affiliate, Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship	University of Bristol
Leyli Behbahani	Research Associate at the Center for Gender Studies	SOAS, University of London
Andrew F. March	Berggruen Fellow, Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics	Harvard University
Gennaro Gervasio	Senior Lecturer in History and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa	Roma Tre University, Italy.
Simindokht Dehghani	Gallerist and translator
Ahmad Sadri	Professor of Sociology	Lake Forest College, USA
Afshin Shahi	Senior Lecturer in International Relations & Middle East Politics	University of Bradford
Otávio Luiz Vieira Pinto	Assistant Lecturer	Universidade Estadual de Santa Catarina (UDESC)
Alan Godlas	Associate Professor in the Department of Religion	University of Georgia
Alessandro Cancian	Research Associate	The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
Pooyan Tamimi Arab	Assistant Professor, Religious Studies	Utrecht University
Saeed Paivandi	Professor of Sociology	University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
Simon Wolfgang Fuchs	Lecturer in Middle East and Islamic Studies	Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Robert J. Riggs	Professor of World Religions	University of Bridgeport
Annabelle Sreberny	Emeritus Professor	SOAS, University of London
Milad Jokar	Visiting Lecturer, Middle East Geopolitics and Diplomacy	Normandy Business School, France
Moisés Garduño García	Professor in International Relations	National Autonomous University of Mexico
Sahar Maranlou	Lecturer in Law, School of Law and Human Rights Centre	University of Essex
Siavush Randjbar-Daemi	Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History	University of St Andrews
Mohsen Sajadi	a Group leader in the Fritz Haber Institute	Max Planck Society in Berlin
Ali Fathollah-Nejad	Affiliated Researcher, Center for Middle East Politics	Freie Universität Berlin
Navid Yousefian	Founder and Executive Director, See You in Iran & Doctoral Candidate in Political Science	UC, Santa Barbara
Shervin Malekzadeh	Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science	Williams College
Navid Ghaffarzadegan	Assistant Professor	Virginia Tech, USA
Aaron Hughes	Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies	University of Rochester
Hussein A H Omar	Junior Research Fellow in History	Pembroke College, Oxford
Deniz Ülke Arıboğan	Professor of International Relations	Istanbul Bilgi University
Maureen Sioh	Associate Professor, Department of Geography	DePaul University
Mohammad Salemy	Artist, Curator	The New Centre for Research & Practice
Sima Shakhsari	Assistant Professor in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies	University of Minnesota
Mohammad Ghanoonparvar	Professor Emeritus of Persian and Comparative Literature	The University of Texas at Austin
Iradj Sobhani	Head of Gastroentology Department	Unviresity Paris-Est CRETEIL
James McDougall	Associate Professor of Modern History	University of Oxford
Tomoko Yamagishi	Professor in Cultural Theories and Iranian Studies	Meiji University, Tokyo
Ali Banuazizi	Professor of Political Science	Boston College
Farideh Farhi	Affiliate Graduate, Faculty of Political Science	University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Lior Sternfeld	Assistant Professor in Iranian Studies	Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Hamid Zangeneh	Professor of Economics	Widener University
Nadia Marzouki	chargée de recherche	CNRS, Paris, France
Daryoush Mohammad Poor	Senior Research Associate	Institute of Ismaili Studies
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd	Professor in Political Science	Northwestern University
Yaser Mirdamadi	PhD candidate in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies	University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Nasrin Rahimieh	Howard Baskerville Professor of Humanities	University of California, Irvine
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi	Professor of History and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations	University of Toronto
Stephen Engelmann	Associate Professor of Political Science	University of Illinois, Chicago
Prashant Keshavmurthy	Associate Professor	Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University
Mohammad Taghi Karoubi	Professor of International Law	SOAS University
Peyman Jafari	Lecturer in Modern History	University of Amsterdam
Fanar Haddad	Senior Research Fellow	Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore
Kathryn Babayan	"Associate Professor of Iranian History & Culture "	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Mojtaba Mahdavi	Associate Professor of Political Science and ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies	University of Alberta
Farzaneh Milani	Chair of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures	University of Virginia
Nader Entessar	Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Criminal Justice	University of South Alabama
Noushin Darya Framke	Writer, Editor	TheIPMN.org
Doug Henwood	Producer/Host, Behind the News	KPFA radio
Charles E Butterworth	Emeritus Professor, Department of Government & Politics	University of Maryland
Hamze Ghalebi	Iran Analyst and Former Political Advisor	Paris, France
Philip G. Kreyenbroek	Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies	University of Goettingen
Philip Grant	Honorary Fellow, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences	University of Edinburgh
Hossein Abadian	Professor of Iran Modern History
David Yaghoubian	Professor of History	CSU San Bernardino
Hatsuki Aishima	Associate Professor	National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
Alexander Jabbari	Assistant Professor of Persian Language and Literature	University of Oklahoma
Stephanie Cronin	Roshan Research Fellow in Modern Iranian History	St Antony's College, Oxford
Massoumeh Torfeh	Iran Analyst	London School of Economics
Jamal Abdi	VP for Policy	National Iranian American Council
Daniel Brumberg	Director Democracy and Governance Program	Georgetown University, Department of Government
Saeed Barzin	Iran analyst	BBC World Service (retired)
Ghoncheh Tazmini	Scholar and Author
Reza Zia-Ebrahimi	Senior Lecturer in History	King’s College London
Mansour Farhang	Professor of Political Science	Bennington College
Touraj Daryaee	Maseeh Chair in Persian Studies, Culture & History	UC Irvine
James M. Gustafson	Associate Professor of History	Indiana State University
Shahir Shahidsaless	Political analyst and freelance journalist
Behrooz Bayaz	Physicist, former lecturer at the university of Marburg, Germany and former external expert of IAEA	Freelance analyst
Mana Kia	Assistant Professor, Middle East, South Asian and African Studies	Columbia University
Ebrahim Ahmadian	Researcher in Islamic Studies, independent journalist & environmental activist
Nima Shirazi	Writer, Editor, Political and Media Analyst	Muftah Magazine / Citations Needed
Sasan Fayazmanesh	Professor Emeritus of Economics	California State University, Fresno
Kamiar Mohaddes	Janeway Fellow in Economics	University of Cambridge
Evaleila Pesaran	Lecturer in Politics and International Relations	Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
Edward Wastnidge	Lecturer in Politics & Internatipnal Studies	Open University
Ellie Geranmayeh	Senior Policy Fellow
Hamid Ahmadi	Director
Amir Kermani	Assistant Professor of Finance and Real Estate	UC Berkeley
Alireza Taghaboni	Architect, professor	Nextoffice,Azad university of Iran
Mehdi Ghadyanloo	Artist/ Public artist
Mehran Kamrava	Professor	Georgetown University-Qatar
Farhang Jahanpour	Distinguished Professor	University of Isfahan