Iranian artists set a Twitter campaign in motion, appealing for a nuclear deal

The weekly journal of Tejarat Farda [Tomorrow’s Trade] in its 104^th issue ran a brief report on efforts by well-known Iranian directors on social networks to promote a nuclear deal. What comes next is the translation of the report:

Six prominent Iranian filmmakers have launched an Internet campaign, appealing to the Iranian negotiating team to clinch a nuclear deal. Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Majid Majidi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Reza Mirkarimi, and Mohammad Mehdi Asgarpour, are those who have created a Facebook page –“No2nodeal” – and #No2nodeal on Twitter.

The top movie directors have announced, “There is no deal that is worse than no deal”. One of the campaign’s posts reads, “Sanctions have hurt ordinary Iranians, not the Iranian nuclear program”. The Iranian artists have also called on people to join the campaign until a nuclear deal is struck.

The nuclear talks between Iran and P5+1 will stretch into November and the 8^th round of the talks will get underway in a few days. Since the negotiations in July, the atmosphere prevailing the talks has been positive. Nonetheless, no certain news about these meetings has been released.

It is the first time Iranian artists have set a Twitter campaign in motion. #No2nodeal has been welcome by foreign media and renowned journalists.

At the Venice Film Festival [August 27- September 6], after her film “Tales” was screened for the competition section, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad at a news conference pleaded for sanctions to be lifted, saying, “The economic situation in Iran is critical thanks to economic sanctions. In fact, the Iranians are paying the price for the sanctions. Having made this film, I want to show the destructive effects that Western sanctions have had on the lives of ordinary people. Our children who are suffering from diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis are actually taking the brunt of the sanctions. I would like these sanctions to be lifted and someone should answer to people.”