The United States government was roundly condemned for its past and present role in Iran at the June 2-5 international conference on U.S. intervention in Iran.
The conference, held in Tehran, was attended by 350 delegates representing political parties, trade unions, and liberation organizations from some fifty-four different countries.
This was a direct blow to Washington's attempts to isolate Iran internationally and helped to further expose the real aims and objectives of U.S. imperialism.
Among those attending the conference was a group of ten Americans, headed by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The ten Americans-ministers, attorneys, and human rights activists-traveled to Iran in direct defiance of Carter's unconstitutional travel ban, which is intended to prevent Americans from finding out first hand the truth about the Iranian revolution.
Clark denounced Carter's April 24 military invasion of Iran calling it "a lawless military expedition, an assault on the sovereign territory of Iran."
"Our reason for coming here," Clark told reporters in Iran, "is the belief that dialogue between all people is essential for understanding and respect."
Clark and the others face sentences of up to ten years in prison and fines of up to $50,000 upon their return. A resolution has already been introduced in the U.S. Senate urging their prosecution.
The first three Americans to return from Iran were detained at the airport and their conference-related material (including a copy of the Koran) was confiscated and photocopied. Attorney Leonard Weinglass, known for his defense of anti-Vietnam War activists, told reporters that in Iran he found a willingness to talk and discuss. In comparison, upon his return to the United States, he said, "with the threat of prosecution and the seizure of our materials I think it's clear which side is responsible for the prolonging of this crisis."
Black civil rights attorney Lennox Hinds asked, "Why is it that Mr. Carter and his advisers are trying so hard to stop Americans from going to Iran?"
In a June 4 speech broadcast throughout Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also asked, "Why is Mr. Carter afraid of these delegations coming to Iran? Why does he impose fines on people who are from his country and are especially high-ranking people?
"Why is he so afraid of the trial of these people in the so-called embassy, which we call the nest of spies?"
At the conference, delegates were shown some of the classified documents found in the U.S. embassy. For example, there was one document, dated January 22, 1979, exposing how Washington had indeed been planning a military takeover in Iran immediately after the shah fled in early 1979.
The document, a message from U.S. General Robert Huyser to U.S. General Alexander Haig stated, 'The actions I am pressing are to break the strike by the use of military in customs, oil and banking.... If that fails my guidance to them is that we must go to a straight military takeover."
Another part of the document exposed even further the methods U.S. imperialism resorts to. Referring to the possibility of civil war, it stated, "One good way to trigger it is to have Khomeini return and be assassinated."
These documents directly contradict the White House claims that the purpose of the Huyser mission in Iran was to forestall a coup by the shah's forces.
Some of the documents found in the U.S. helicopters left in Iran after Washington's abortive military raid were also presented at the conference. Other documents dealt with the connections between the CIA and SAVAK, the shah's secret police.
The international conference adopted a twelve-point resolution. Washington was harshly condemned for the CIA-sponsored coup in 1953 that reinstalled the shah on the Peacock Throne and for the April 24 military raid on Iran. The conference also severely criticized the U.S. government for freezing Iranian assets; mistreating Iranians, especially students, in the United States; and pressuring other nations to impose economic sanctions against Iran.
The conference also "recognized Iran's right to seek compensation for its enormous material and human losses as a result of U.S. practices during the past 27 years" and its "right to seek the extradition of the shah and the return of his wealth plundered by the Pahlavi dynasty."
Some members of Iran's parliament were suspicious of Clark's presence at the international conference, which was primarily organized by Iranian president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr and Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh.
Last November, immediately after the embassy occupation, Carter sent Clark to Iran as his emissary. At that time Khomeini refused to receive Clark and he was not allowed into the country.
Moreover, many Iranians objected to some of Clark's statements. Although his remarks were in the context of support for the Iranian revolution and opposition to Washington's policies in Iran, Clark urged the release of the hostages, saying he thought the students were holding the wrong people.
Clark said he thought it would be different if Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt, Richard Helms, Henry Kissinger, or Richard Nixon were the hostages, referring to past top U.S. leaders and officials of the State Department and CIA. Clark also offered to take the place of one of the hostages.
But Clark ignores the fact that the U.S. embassy personnel in Iran included a number of high ranking State Department employees, and ignores all the evidence released on how the embassy was used as a center of spying and for organizing activity against the Iranian revolution.
Clark's criticisms were not endorsed by any of the other Americans attending the conference. They explained they were not there to interfere in Iran's internal politics.
The conference dates coincided with massive demonstrations commemorating the seventeenth anniversary of the June 1963 uprising against the shah. It was this huge outpouring of popular opposition that had led to the exile of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
On June 5 commemorative marches and rallies were held in cities and towns in almost every region of the country. In Tehran alone, more than half a million people turned out. Tens of thousands poured into the streets in Isfahan. These were some of the largest mobilizations in several months.
The major theme of the demonstrations was opposition to U.S. imperialism. Those who participated came primarily from Iran's working class.
At the Tehran rally a resolution was passed, amid cheers and shouts, endorsing the demands of the students who occupied the U.S. embassy-that the shah and his wealth must be returned to Iran. The crowd also resolved to resist Washington's economic boycott and to safeguard Iran's independence.
Bani-Sadr warned against any rightwing violence against participants in the demonstration, an indication that the capitalist-inspired attacks on the campuses several weeks ago had totally failed to whip up mass support and had, in fact, backfired against the government. The demonstration proceeded without incident.
The Iranian Revolutionary Workers Party (HKE) distributed 25,000 leaflets urging people to participate in the demonstration.
Members of the American delegation in Iran observed the massive rally in Isfahan, where they also met with Iranians who had been maimed and crippled in the shah's infamous torture chambers.
The U.S. delegation's participation in the conference has served to further educate American working people as to the real role of U.S. imperialism. Washington's role in Iran is but one example of how the U.S. government tries to sabotage strug gles for democratic rights and social progress all over the world.
Clark has declared he will form a commission in the United States to expose the U.S. government's involvement in Iran during the shah's regime. He said he would sue the government under the Freedom of Information Act, if necessary.
This could be a further step in exposing the Carter administration's refusal to resolve the hostage crisis. Carter refuses to even acknowledge the existence of U.S. crimes against Iran, let alone apologize for them. Such a commission could also help Americans further understand why the Iranian masses continue to firmly demand the extradition of the shah and the return of his plundered wealth.