In today’s Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius comments on the arrest and detention of Kamiar and Arash Alaei.

In a column that appeared Sept. 6, 2006, I highlighted the work of Dr. Arash Alaei, an Iranian who created an HIV-AIDS program that the World Health Organization called a “best-practice model” for the Middle East. Now, inexplicably, he and his brother Kamiar, also a physician, have been arrested and charged with fomenting a “velvet revolution.” Having visited Alaei at his headquarters in North Tehran, I have seen firsthand the good he and his brother were accomplishing. Shame on the Iranian government.

In other coverage, Reuters has picked up the EU’s call on Iran to immediately release the Drs. Alaei.

PARIS (Reuters) – European Union president France called on Iran on Wednesday to release immediately two Iranian doctors who have been detained by Tehran for more than a month.

In a separate statement the bloc’s presidency said it was very concerned by violations of the rights of the Kurdish minority in Iran and by death sentences passed on five members of the ethnic group.

Both statements were published as the United States and Britain said major powers had agreed on Wednesday to consider more U.N. sanctions on Iran after Tehran gave no concrete reply to their demand that it freeze its nuclear activities.

Arash and Kamiar Alaei are brothers who specialize in the treatment of HIV/AIDS and were arrested on June 21 and 22.

The U.S. State Department has expressed its concern, and rights groups Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights have called for the pair’s release.

“The Presidency of the Council of the European Union calls on the Iranian government to immediately release Arash and Kamiar Alaei and to drop all charges that might be brought against them,” France, which holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, said in a statement.

“In their latest statements, the Iranian authorities have without any foundation accused the Alaei brothers, who are internationally recognized for their work in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Iran, of participating in activities to destabilize the Islamic Republic,” the Foreign Ministry said.

It did not elaborate on the substance of the accusations.

Western diplomats and human rights group say Iran has cracked down on dissenting voices since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005 on a pledge to revive values of the Islamic revolution launched almost three decades ago.

The diplomats and rights groups say pro-reform students, women’s rights activists and labor activists are among those targeted in the clampdown, which they say could be in response to Western pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.