PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — On Saturday, Oct. 3rd, 2015 at 3 p.m., the Mariposa Museum and the Ilex Foundation will co-present, The Iran Nuclear Agreement: A Conversation with Souroush Richard Shehabi. The event will be held at the Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center at 26 Main Street in Peterborough.
In July, after months of diplomacy, the P5+1 — the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia and Germany — along with the European Union, achieved a long-term comprehensive nuclear deal with Iran designed to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and ensure that Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful going forward.
Sorting through the heated rhetoric, polemical positions, and conflicting scientific claims in the press coverage of this historic agreement has been a challenge for many of us. This conversation with Washington insider Saroush Richard Shehabi (see full bio below) will provide an overview to the agreement and touch on such key questions as: what is the political backdrop inside Iran that led to this? Is Iran serious about complying, and will we know if they do? What are the risks and the repercussions, especially inside a country that calls the U.S. “The Great Satan.”
The event will be moderated by Dr. Olga (Holly) Davidson, President of the Board of the Ilex Foundation, which promotes the study of humanistic traditions that derive from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East.
An informal reception will follow. Admission is free for Mariposa members and $10 for non-members. The Mariposa Museum is wheelchair accessible.
Mr. Soroush Richard Shehabi has three decades of experience in media, law, policy and politics, with expertise in energy/environmental security, U.S.-Iran policy and political organizing. A graduate of Harvard University, with a JD from the University of California, Mr. Shehabi has worked as a financial analyst for Salomon Brothers in New York, as an attorney, first for the law firm of Christensen, White, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser & Shapiro in Los Angeles, and then for the U.S. Dept. of Justice during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Mr. Shehabi’s experience in politics started with Senator Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential bid and continued with Vice President Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, General Wesley Clark presidential campaign in 2004, where he served as senior policy adviser for energy and environment, and Senator John Kerry’s presidential campaign, where he served as deputy political director and constituency director for Pennsylvania under Tony Podesta.
Mr. Shehabi is vice chairman of the board of Friends of the Earth and a member of the board of the Near East Foundation, one of the oldest non-profit aid and development organizations in America. Mr. Shehabi is also a founding board member of the Iranian American Bar Association and the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC), on whose board he has served since inception, from 2002 to 2014. He was one of the founders of PAAIA (the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian American) and serves on that board (and IAPAC, it’s connected PAC). At PAAIA, he has been spearheading the national communications and ad campaign in support of the Iran deal, diplomacy and peace.
He has also been active on these issues through J Street, the Counsel of Foreign Relations (where he participated on an Iran task force) and the Arca Foundation which convened a number of conferences on the history of missed opportunities between Iran and the United States.
Currently, Mr. Shehabi is the CEO and publisher of Washington Life Magazine and an owner of Celebrity Service International, a global 70-year-old business-to-business media information company based in New York and Los Angeles. Mr. Shehabi is passionate about documentary films, and was executive producer of the “film-anthropy” project “Kicking It,” a film about the homeless world cup of soccer which debuted at the Sundance, Tribeca and SilverDocs film festivals before recouping its investment and helping support street soccer leagues in the US and abroad through theatrical, online and television distribution.He has also been active on these issues through J Street, the Counsel of Foreign Relations (where he participated on an Iran task force) and the Arca Foundation which convened a number of conferences on the history of missed opportunities between Iran and the United States.
