Iranian Jewish community to Obama: Seize 'unrepeatable' chance to mend ties with Iran
Head of community urges US President Barack Obama to accept Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures.
By JPOST.COM STAFFObama at White House 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Iran's Jewish community has called on US President Barack Obama to seize an "unrepeatable" opportunity to mend ties with Tehran following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the US, AFP reported on Sunday."If the US and the international community do not make the best of this golden and perhaps unrepeatable opportunity, then it will be in the benefit of those who are against the normalization of ties between Iran and the US," the head of the Jewish community in Tehran wrote in an open letter to the US president.Homayoun Sameyah Najaf Abady also rejected the suggestion made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the Iranian people are denied personal freedoms.Speaking in an interview with BBC Persian television earlier this month, Netanyahu stated, "I think if the Iranian people had freedom, they would wear jeans, listen to Western music, and have free elections."AFP quoted Sameyah as responding in the letter, "We, the Iranian Jews, as an Iranian religious minority, participated in the elections and elected our popular president freely."He said that the Jewish community has freedom of choice in "wearing jeans and listening to music."
