Speakers at the Iran-Conference "Time to Act", Berlin 2009

Ali Alfoneh

Born in Iran; his research at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the American Enterprise Institute (Washington) focuses on the role of the Revolutionary Guards in the Islamic Republic. In the New York Times he described the rigged elections in Iran as a military coup by the Revolutionary Guards leading to a further militarization of the political and economical system. He also contributes to the website and daily newsletter IranTracker.

 

Ilan Berman

Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, USA. He is an expert on Middle East policy, Caspian energy, missile defense and the dangers of terrorism and proliferation. His latest book is Winning The Long War: Retaking The Offensive Against Radical Islam (2009).

Saba Farzan

Exile-Iranian, sociologist and publicist, member of the German Liberal party (FDP), Berlin, Germany. Several publications on the current situation in Iran, participation in talk shows about this topic, e.g. on German state TV broadcaster Phoenix (Video). In the German daily Tagesspiegel she called for sanctions against the Iranian regime and Western support for the opposition in Iran.

Jana Hybášková

President of the European Democratic Party in the Czech Republic, Prague. Until July 2009 member of the European Parliament and chair women of the Delegation for Relations with Israel, deputy of the Delegation for Relations with Iran and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is also member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy.

Dr. Matthias Küntzel

Political scientist and publicist, Hamburg, Germany. As an expert on Islamic Antisemitism and the Iranian Regime he has written extensively on these topics. Among his publications are Jihad and Jew-Hatred (2007) and Germany and Iran – history and presence of a fatal friendship (2009).

Fathiyeh Naghibzadeh

Exil-Iranian publicist, activist and filmmaker, member of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin. She is co-author of the movie "Headscarf as a System" and recently wrote about the role of women in the protests in Iran.

Emanuele Ottolenghi

Director of Transatlantic Institute in Brussels, Belgium, an “intellectual bridge between the United States and the European Union”. Ottolenghi is a frequent commentator on among others the Arab-Israeli conflict and Europe’s Middle East policy in leading American and European media. In the Wall Street Journal he recently called for the renaming of streets in Europe after the murdered Neda Agha-Sultan.His latest book is Under a Mushroom Cloud: Iran, Europe and the Bomb (2009).

Michael Spaney

Board member the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin and speaker of the STOP THE BOMB-campaign in Germany. He helped to uncover the scandal of the Siemens-Nokia surveillance technology delivered to the Iranian regime.

Daniel Schwammenthal

Political scientist and editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal Europe. As a political commentator he covers German and European politics, economics and regulatory affairs. He observed the German-Iranian relationship and wrote about Antisemitism and Islamism in Europe.

Dr. Charles A. Small

Director and Founder of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), Yale University, USA. He taught in the field of sociology and philosophy in London, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Connecticut. He also worked as a consultant and policy advisor in North America, Europe, Southern Africa and the Middle East and lectured internationally. Recently he discussed the issue of Radical Islam and the Nuclear Bomb (Video).

Prof. Gerald Steinberg

Teaches in the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, Israel. President of NGO Monitor. He specializes in international relations, diplomacy and “soft power”, particularly in the Middle East, including proliferation, the Iranian nuclear program, the NPT regime, and the politics of NGOs. He has published internationally in scholarly journals and in the BBC, International Herald Tribune, Jerusalem Post and Financial Times.

MP Gisela Stuart

Labour party Member of Parliament for BirminghamEdgbaston, United Kingdom. She is a member of the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee and a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles supporting human rights and democracy worldwide.

Jonathan Weckerle

Board member of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin and speaker of the STOP THE BOMB-campaign in Germany. He writes about the German-Iranian relationship in media like Tagesspiegel, Konkret, Jerusalem Post and iz3w.