The U.S. Department of State has issued the following statement about the recent arrests:

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today called for strong international condemnation of the arrest of Baha’i leaders in Iran.

On May 14, Iranian intelligence officials arrested six Baha’i leaders and took them to the notorious Evin prison. The imprisonments are ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha’i leaders were summarily rounded up and subsequently executed.

On February 28, 2008, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL - 10th district) introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran.

The Agence France-Presse reported today that Iran's judiciary has announced sentences for 54 members of the Baha'i Faith who were arrested in May 2006 in Shiraz while taking part in a project to educate underprivileged children.
 

GENEVA, 29 January 2008 (BWNS)--In the wake of a US State Department call for Iran to release Baha'i prisoners, Amnesty International has issued an "urgent action" appeal on their behalf.

NEW YORK, 20 November 2007 (BWNS) -- A committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution today expressing "deep concern" about "ongoing systematic violations of human rights" in Iran.

Sahba Rohani, 30, a kindergarten teacher in Brooklyn, recently went to Istanbul, Turkey, to be with more than 30 relatives, who, like her, belong to the Baha'i Faith.

At several public appearances during his recent visit to the United States, the president of Iran was asked pointedly about his country's persecution of the Baha'i community in Iran.

The Iranian government is "working...to find and expel students from Iranian universities -- solely based on the religion they practice," U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL) writes in the Chicago Sun-Times.  The op-ed, published on September 30, is entitled "Iran's crackdown victimizes Baha'is."

The Congressman has posted the same statement on his blog.