June 6, 2005

Another U.S. organization bans publication by Iranian authors

Dear university friends:

One year after our successful fight to reverse OFAC's ruling on publication by authors from Iran, another US professional organization decided to impose similar bans on publication and to prevent participation of Iranian authors to their conferences.

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in its May meeting passed a resolution imposing these restrictions based on the old OFAC's ruling and the sanction Law against Embargoed countries.

Following this decision, papers that were already accepted for publication were rejected and presentations of the Iranian authors were removed from the Conference program on Fluid Dynamics in Toronto. After colleagues from SUT informed us about this policy SUTA sent a letter to the President of AIAA and asked for restoring the presentations to the program of AIAA conference.

Today, June 2, 2005, AIAA informed us that they will allow the Iranian authors to present their papers at the conference, but they have refused to cancel their resolution. [The AIAA has granted only an "exception" for the Toronto meeting].

While SUTA is pleased with this partial victory, but we will continue our involvement and publicize this issue until AIAA has changed its policy. You may also contact AIAA and express your opinion:

President: Prof Roger L Simpson
703/264-7511
tammys@aiaa.org