IRAN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Centre
for
World
Dialogue

Conferences & Meetings

IRAN IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY:
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE

These opening remarks set the tone for the gravity of the debates which were to follow. Delegates at the two-day conference listened to a series of varied and informed papers. There was animated discussion among delegates from different ends of the Iranian political spectrum. Dr Gary Sick raised the question of Iran's relations with the United States, the two countries' mutual dependence and the need to address differences between them.

Now is the time for the people of Iran to begin their assessment of the legacy of the last twenty years and to build towards their future. The country is entering one of the most crucial periods in its history

Hossein Alikhani
President, Centre for World Dialogue

Issues under discussion were Iran's relationship with the international community; modernity and culture in Iran; politics and Iranian society; and the role played by the media.
Speakers included Professor Hossein Azimi, Tehran University; Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Bojnourdi, former Chief Justice of Iran; Shahram Chubin, Executive Director, Centre for Security Policy, Geneva; Shireen Hunter, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC;

Ambassador Richard Murphy of the Council of Foreign Relations, New York; Olivier Roy, Research Director, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris; Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Editor, Neshat Daily, Tehran; as well as Abbas Abdi and Emadeddin Baghi, editors of reformist Iranian newspapers.

Nicosia, Cyprus, June 1999: in co-operation with Gulf/2000 Project, Columbia University and the Middle East Institute