SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
June, 27 2019, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Mana Mostatabi, 202.386.6325 x103, mmostatabi@niacouncil.org
NIAC Applauds Open Letter Signed by Over 100 Iranian Human Rights Defenders Expressing Concern over U.S.-Iran Tensions
The San Francisco-based human rights group, United For Iran, published a letter signed by over 100 Iranian human rights advocates expressing concern against further U.S. escalation with Iran. The letter expresses "grave concerns over the rising tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which risks a military confrontation that would cause massive human rights harms."
WASHINGTON
The San Francisco-based human rights group, United For Iran, published a letter signed by over 100 Iranian human rights advocates expressing concern against further U.S. escalation with Iran. The letter expresses "grave concerns over the rising tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which risks a military confrontation that would cause massive human rights harms."
It further urges both countries to exercise restraint and emphasizes that war will only devastate Iran's human rights defenders. The letter also underscores that "Only peace-focused policies that prioritize the rights and well-being of ordinary people in Iran and the region can provide meaningful, long-term benefits."
The full text of the letter and list of signatories can be found here.
In response to the letter, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) issued the following statement:
"With conflict looming between Iran and the United States, Iranian human rights activists are emphatically joining the chorus of voices demanding that the U.S. refrain from abandoning diplomacy in favor of military action.
"Nothing can destroy Iranians' quest to advance human rights in the country faster than war. Ultimately war is the biggest human rights violation. If the Trump administration is truly intent on supporting the Iranian people, it would do well to listen to those, both in and outside of Iran, who have dedicated their livelihoods to promoting an open society. The administration needs to adopt a pro-diplomacy approach to Iran, lest it continue to use human rights as a platform to push forth Trump's dangerous maximum pressure campaign.
"The Iran nuclear deal was a platform that not only restricted Iran's nuclear program. It was a platform for engagement that opened the door to progress within Iran and the easing of social restrictions. The decision by the Trump administration to violate the deal stifled this development and promoted confrontation.
"That the Iranian government violates the rights of its citizens is without question. However, as these activists make clear, current U.S. policy on Iran can only exacerbate the devastating human rights situation in Iran. To choose human rights is to choose diplomacy--and any path forward with Iran must adopt engagement, including the lifting of sanctions and a return to the Iran nuclear deal, as its cornerstone.
"Rather than helping to advance the cause for human rights, war will destroy the lives of Iranians and create unforeseeable devastation that is far removed from the ideals of liberty or justice. As the prime defenders of human rights in Iran, it is incumbent upon us to heed their words."
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to give voice to the Iranian-American community. From being the trusted voice on U.S.- Iran relations, to pushing forth legislation that protects individuals of Iranian heritage from systematic discrimination, to celebrating our cultural heritage, NIAC creates a lasting impact in the lives of the members of our community.
(202) 386-6325LATEST NEWS
Another Giveaway to Big Oil as Trump Wrenches Open 13 Million Acres of Arctic for Drilling
"The Trump administration is trying to take us back in time with its reckless fossil fuels agenda."
Nov 14, 2025
The Trump administration on Thursday killed Biden-era rules that protected around 13 million acres of the western Arctic from fossil fuel drilling, another giveaway to the industry that helped bankroll the president's campaign.
The decision by the US Interior Department, led by billionaire fossil fuel industry ally Doug Burgum, targets the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). Last year, the Biden administration finalized rules that shielded more than half of the 23-million-acre NPR-A from drilling.
Conservationists were quick to condemn the repeal of the rules as a move that prioritizes the profits of oil and gas corporations over wildlife, pristine land, and the climate.
Monica Scherer, senior director of campaigns at Alaska Wilderness League, ripped the administration for ignoring the hundreds of thousands of people who engaged in the public comment process and spoke out against the gutting of NPR-A protections.
“Today’s actions make one thing painfully clear: this administration never had any intention of listening to the American people," Scherer said Thursday. "By dismantling these protections, Interior isn’t ‘restoring common sense,’ it’s sidelining science and traditional knowledge, silencing communities, and putting irreplaceable lands and wildlife at risk."
Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe called the administration's weakening of Arctic protections "another example of how the Trump administration is trying to take us back in time with its reckless fossil fuels agenda."
"This would sweep aside common-sense regulations aimed at more responsibly managing the Western Arctic’s irreplaceable lands and wildlife for future generations," said Grafe. "It rewinds the clock to regulations last updated in 1977. This is no way to secure our future.”
"Where others see the most ecologically intact landscape in the United States, the Interior Department sees another American treasure poised for ruination."
Thursday's move came less than a month after the Trump administration announced plans to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling. At the time, Burgum declared, "Alaska is open for business."
ConocoPhillips, the oil and gas giant behind the much-decried Willow project that the Biden administration approved in 2023, is among the possible beneficiaries of the Trump Interior Department's decision to roll back drilling protections in the western Arctic.
Inside Climate News reported earlier this week that ConocoPhillips "has applied to extend ice roads and well pads farther west into the Arctic wilderness beyond its Willow oil project."
"The company also wants to build roads to the south of Willow, where it would use heavy-duty equipment to thump the ground with seismic testing searching for crude," the outlet added.
Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Thursday that the Trump administration's latest attack on Arctic protections "is nothing more than a giveaway to the oil and gas industry."
"Weakening protections is reckless, and it threatens to erase the very landscapes Congress sought to safeguard," said McEnaney. "Where others see the most ecologically intact landscape in the United States, the Interior Department sees another American treasure poised for ruination.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Time to Clear House': Sunrise Movement Launches Major Primary Effort Against Corporate Dems
"For far too long, Democratic leadership has failed to meet the moment," the leader of the youth-led climate movement said.
Nov 13, 2025
Amid growing outrage over corporate Democrats' failure to meaningfully stand up against President Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, Sunrise Movement on Thursday launched what it called it "most ambitious" primary campaign to replace feckless incumbents with progressives.
"For far too long, Democratic leadership has failed to meet the moment; it’s time to clear house,” Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay said in a statement.
“I’m extremely excited about the crop of candidates running in 2026," Shiney-Ajay added. "This year, we have an unprecedented opportunity to elect a new generation of leaders who are challenging our broken political system and fighting for a livable and affordable country.”
Like many progressive groups, Sunrise Movement has expressed its growing frustration with most congressional Democrats' acquiescence to Trump and Republicans' growing authoritarianism. The youth-led, climate-focused organization was particularly incensed by Senate Democrats' recent capitulation in the government shutdown fight.
"Why the hell would Democrats cave with nothing for the working people? When millions are losing healthcare?" Sunrise asked last week. "If you cave now, you don’t deserve to lead, you deserve to be replaced."
To that end, Sunrise says its new campaign "will include a nationwide field, protest, and communications program targeting over a dozen congressional primaries."
"Sunrise organizers and volunteers will mobilize thousands of young people to knock on doors, make calls, and take direct action to elect progressive champions ready to challenge the Democratic Party’s complacency and reimagine what Democratic leadership can look like," the group continued.
"In the 2026 general election, Sunrise will lead one of the largest youth electoral efforts in the country, organizing students on campuses across the country to ensure young voters turn out to reject authoritarianism at the ballot box and are prepared to mobilize in defense of election results if Trump or his allies attempt to subvert democracy," Sunrise added.
The new Sunrise campaign comes as progressive groups such as Indivisible, MoveOn, and Our Revolution and some Democratic House lawmakers including progressives Ro Khanna (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) are urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to step down in the wake of the shutdown surrender.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Behind Every Barrel of Oil Is a Trace of Blood': 25 Countries Helped Fuel Gaza Genocide
"States have a moral and legal obligation to end these fuel flows immediately," one campaigner said.
Nov 13, 2025
A total of 25 countries sent 323 shipments of oil to Israel while it was committing genocide in Gaza, according to a new analysis released by Oil Change International on Thursday.
The report, Behind the Barrel: An Update on the Origins of Israel’s Fuel Supply, was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. It concluded that the countries sent almost 21.2 million metric tons of both crude and refined oil to Israel between November 1, 2023 and October 1, 2025 while Israel was conducting a campaign of bombing and mass starvation against Gaza that killed over 69,000 people.
"Governments permitted fuel supplies to Israel even after it became clear Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, a finding now backed by a UN commission," Bronwen Tucker of Oil Change International said in a statement. "States have a moral and legal obligation to end these fuel flows immediately. The same fossil fuel system that drives the climate crisis also drives war, occupation, and genocide."
The countries that supplied the most crude oil were Azerbaijan through Turkey and Kazakhstan through Russia, accounting for around 70% of shipments. Russia supplied the most refined oil at nearly 1.5 million metric tons, followed by Greece at over 0.5 million metric tons and the US at over 0.4 million metric tons. However, the US was the only country that supplied Israel with JP-8, a specialized military jet fuel.
"The same system that burns the planet also fuels Israel’s genocidal machine and upholds its colonial regime of illegal occupation and apartheid."
The US "sent nine shipments totaling 360,000 tonnes of JP-8, as well as two shipments of diesel, all from Valero’s Bill Greehey Refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas," the report found.
"A genocide needs media complicity, government complicity, weapons, funding, but it also needs oil to keep operating, and we need to stop that oil from flowing there," said Leandro Lanfredi, Rio de Janeiro director of the National Federation of Oil Workers Brasil, during a press briefing unveiling the report at COP30.
The report argued that the nations who sent oil to Israel acted in violation of their obligations under international law, with some continuing the shipments even after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said that Israel's actions were illegal in July 2024 and a United Nations commission determined that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza in September 2025.
“The obligation of states to comply with the ICJ interim order flow directly from Article I of the Genocide Convention, which requires states to undertake [actions] ‘to prevent and to punish genocide,'" Irene Pietropaoli, senior fellow in business and human rights at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, told Oil Change in an email. "The ICJ Order finding ‘a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice will be caused to the rights found by the court to be plausible’ means that states are now aware of the risk of genocide being committed in Gaza. States must consider that their military or other assistance to Israel’s military operations in Gaza may put them at a risk of being complicit in genocide under the Genocide Convention.”
Mohammed Usrof, executive director of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, said: “Behind the Barrel confirms what Palestinians and climate justice movements have long said: Fossil fuel supply chains are weapons of war. Governments and corporations that continue to trade oil, diesel, and jet fuel with Israel—even through intermediaries—are enabling genocide. States must impose a full energy embargo and close the legal loopholes that make complicity profitable."
At the panel announcing the report, speakers called out the hypocrisy of nations who try to present themselves as climate leaders while sending money to Israel and companies like Maersk who attend COPs while facilitating those shipments. For example, Brazil, which is hosting COP30, has not directly shipped oil to Israel since March 2024. However, it does send crude oil to a refinery in Sardinia that then exports to Israel.
"We don't want any single drop of oil to get to Israel."
"Behind every barrel of oil is a trace of blood and behind every shipment is a logistic of genocide, and we need to recognize how it all starts, and we need to recognize the complicity of the companies, the corporations, and the governments that continue acting, especially in spaces such as COP," Usrof said during the briefing.
At the same time, advocates noted that the same fossil fuel companies profit from both climate collapse and genocide.
"The fossil fuel industry lies at the core of today’s global crisis, driving climate collapse, militarization, and genocide. The same system that burns the planet also fuels Israel’s genocidal machine and upholds its colonial regime of illegal occupation and apartheid," said Ana Sánchez, general coordinator for the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine, in a statement.
Sánchez continued: "From oil fields to shipping routes, fossil capitalism turns profit into power over life itself. At COP30, we remind the world that energy justice is inseparable from liberation: ending these fuel flows is not just a moral imperative but a necessary act of decolonization. People everywhere are rising to build a new global order that puts life above the privilege of business as usual.”
In particular, the panelists held up the example of workers in Italy who conducted general strikes in solidarity with Gaza.
Partly inspired by the Italian strikes, Lanfredi said his trade union had recently voted to oppose any oil reaching Israel from Brazil.
"We need a growing workers' movement worldwide... for an energy embargo in support of the Palestinian people. We don't want any single drop of oil to get to Israel," he said.
Usrof encouraged people living in all complicit countries to "realize that they have the power to resist at the docks, at each of the conduits of power, the conduits of oil and gas and energy in general."
Shady Khalil of Oil Change International concluded: "The call is clear: We are calling for countries to act on their legal and moral obligation to stop providing fossil fuel to Israel and stop contributing to this genocide and join their people."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular