Saturday September 25, 2010

I've Been Thinking:

Iran's diplomatic service has been stricken with a series of defections. For the first time the Iranian foreign ministry has commented on this situation.

The three most recent defections include the # 2 man in the diplomatic service named Helzinki Hossein Alizadah, the press attache in Brussels named Farzad Farhangin and a consular official in Oslo. A member of Iran's diplomatic team in LA has also asked the United States for asylum because he is gay.

The Iranians do not call these men defectors or asylum seekers, instead, they refer to each one as a person "refusing to return."
The official stance is that these diplomats reuse to return for personal reasons not political reasons. Iranian diplomats are sent abroad for three years and sometimes it is extended.

In total, twenty Iranians from the diplomatic corps have recently sought asylum. Let's put it in perspective: since 2008 three hundred Iranians have been granted political asylum in the West.

This new wave is interesting to note, but it is not all that unusual.

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