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Statement by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance |
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Sunday, 12 June 2005 |
U.S. and Iraqi officials have reiterated that the Iranian regime’s
meddling in Iraq has undermined peace and stability in that country.
Tehran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons have also aroused alarm in
the world community. There are reports on the role of Tehran in the
September 11 tragedy and international human rights organizations have
pointed to the deterioration of human rights in Iran and the rise in
public executions. A worldwide consensus has emerged on the need for a
regime change in Iran.
Meanwhile, Tehran’s lobby in Washington is working to help the mullahs
evade punishment for their atrocities in and out of Iran. The report
just published by the Council on Foreign Relations calls on Washington
to enter into a "deal with the current regime rather than wait for it
to fall… and press for Iran to hand over al Qaeda detainees in exchange
for the United States disbanding the Iraq-based Mojahedin-e Khalq, the
most militant Iran opposition force.”
There is nothing new in the suggested deal. It is merely a repeat of
the Irangate scandal. We, nevertheless, deem it necessary to raise the
following points:
1. The report by the Council on Foreign Relations has nothing new to
offer. In its May and June 1997 issue, published simultaneous with
Mohammad Khatami becoming President, some of the authors of the present
report called for striking a deal with the theocracy ruling Iran. Their
report noted, “The advent of the Clinton administration’s second term,
together with the imminent inauguration of a new administration in Iran
following this May’s elections, provides an opportunity to review U.S.
policies toward the Gulf and consider whether midcourse corrections
could improve the situation…. The policy of unilateral U.S. sanctions
against Iran has been ineffectual… There seems little justification for
the treatment the United States currently accords Iran because of its
nuclear program. Instead of simply punishing the country, the United
States should consider whether a trade of might be feasible in return
for Iran’s acceptance of restrictions on its civilian nuclear
program...”
The policy suggested by the authors in that article, which the previous
administration followed to the letter, only resulted in the mullahs
getting closer to a nuclear bomb, increasing their influence in Iran
and stepping up human rights abuses in Iran in the past seven years. It
appears that with their new report, the authors are bent on completing
their unfinished mission of serving the blood-thirsty dictatorship
ruling Iran.
2. The recommendation to strike a deal with the clerical regime comes
as the mullahs’ conspiracies to dominate Iraq have taken on new
dimensions. Yesterday, Iraq’s Defense Minister Hazem Shalan al-Khuzaei
said, “Iranian meddling in Iraq has been vast and unprecedented since
the establishment of the Iraqi state. Generally speaking, Iranians have
penetrated the country’s sensitive centers and set up many intelligence
and security centers in Iraq.” He added, “The Prime Minister, the
Foreign Minister and myself are clearly opposed to Iran’s massive
involvement in Iraqi affairs and this dangerous precedent. They
(Iranians) confess to the presence of their spies in Iraq who have a
mission to shake up the social and political situation" (Reuters,
Asharq Al-Awsat, July 20, 2004).
Similarly, Interior Minister Fallah Hassan An-Naghib stated, “It must
be acknowledged that Iran directly as a government and indirectly has a
major role in terrorist and sabotage operations in Iraq” (Asharq
Al-Awsat, July 21, 2004). To this end, CENTCOM Commander General John
Abizaid said yesterday in Bahrain, “There are groups within Iran that
want to play a destabilizing role in Iraq and I think that would be
most unhelpful for Iran and most unhelpful for Iraq” (Associated Press,
July 20, 2004).
3. These recommendations also come as the clerical regime’s plans to
obtain nuclear weapons has around concern within the international
community. On July 17, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said in
India, “We have finally discovered in a way that is indisputable that
Iran was moving, hiding things and moving towards acquiring a nuclear
weapon. They went out of their way to hide facilities, to deceive the
international community as to what was happening.” He added, “Iran is
vulnerable to economic sanctions.”
4. As the CFR report came out, the U.S. media published some excerpts
from the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission report, which revealed the role of
the Iranian regime in the September 11 tragedy. Newsweek wrote on July
26, that U.S. intelligence officials say, “Eight to ten of the
so-called ‘muscle hijackers’ on September 11 are believed to have
traveled through Iran between October 2000 and February 2001—the same
period of time that Iranian border guards were facilitating the
movement of extremist jihadis entering and exiting the Afghan training
camps. Those same hijackers began entering the United States in April
2001 with no stamps on their passports indicating their recent travel
to Afghanistan and Iran - red flags that might have prompted heightened
scrutiny from U.S. border inspectors.
5. The CFR report underscores that Washington should “ensure that
Mojahedin facilities are conclusively disbanded and that its leaders
are brought to justice for their role in violence against both Iraqis
and Iranians under Saddam’s regime.”
This is while Tehran’s back-channel deals and conspiracies to
extradition and get the People’s Mojahedin (PMOI) expelled from Iraq or
extradited to Iran failed miserably. In the past year, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees, one thousand Iraqi lawyers, more than 1,000
eminent international jurists, thousands of parliamentarians, including
305 British MPs, majorities in the Italian, Norwegian, Belgian and
Luxembourg parliaments as well as a majority in the Belgian Senate
emphasized that the Iranian Mojahedin based in Camp Ashraf are
protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention. The policy
suggestions by the Iranian regime’s lobby about the Mojahedin is a
blatant breach of international covenants, including the Fourth Geneva
Convention, the 1907 Hague Regulations, etc.
6. Fifteen months after the fall of the former government in Iran,
everything is under the control of the U.S. forces. During this period,
different U.S. and Coalition agencies have repeatedly scrutinized the
PMOI personnel. They have all acknowledged that they had found no links
between the Mojahedin and terrorism and that were no charges pending
against them. U.S. Defense Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld
reiterated during a hearing in the United States Senate that the
Mojahedin in Iraq are not detainees but under a different status. (U.S.
hearing,
7. The CFR report has called for the prosecution of the Mojahedin for
violence against Iranians. The “Iranians” referred to by the authors
are none other than the clerical regime’s henchmen and executioners who
are responsible for 120,000 political executions. It is common
knowledge that the Iranian Resistance has never targeted civilians. It
has also declared time and again that if anyone in the ranks of the
Resistance would deliberately or inadvertently cross the red line of
harming civilians, the Resistance would be prepared to hand him/her
over to an international tribunal and to pay compensation to those put
in harms way. Only the people of Iran are qualified to assess the
relationship between the Iranian Resistance, the PMOI and the Iranian
people. It has nothing to do with those in Washington who are getting
paid by the Iranian regime. For the past quarter century, the Iranian
people have ignored the clerical regime slanders and continue to
encourage their children to join their children to join the Resistance
movement. By providing them with financial assistance, information and
human support, the Iranian people have already passed judgment on the
Mojahedin.
8. As far as the people of Iraq are concerned, the presence of 50,000
Iraqis at Camp Ashraf on June 18 to declare solidarity with Iranian
Resistance and the testimonies by more than 500,000 Iraqi citizens
about the background and conduct of the Mojahedin in Iraq and their
emphasis on the need for the continuing presence of the PMOI in Iraq as
the most serious buffer against fundamentalism, offer a decisive
response to the claims by the mullahs and their allies. The statement
by Iraqi citizens underscored, “The People's Mojahedin of Iran have
been the honorable guests of the people of Iraq in the past 17 years.
Iraqis, including the Shiites and Sunnis, Kurds and Arabs, have not
experienced anything but goodness and friendship with them. Therefore,
it is an Islamic and patriotic duty for the people of Iraq to respect
the Mojahedin and be hospitable to them. Aggression on their lives,
properties and families is against religious standards and traditions
of Iraq.”
9. As for the clerical regime’s misinformation campaign about the
interference on the Mojahedin in Iraqi affairs, the Iraqi daily,
Az-Zaman wrote an article on January 11, 2003, entitled, “Independent
sources: Mojahedin are not part of the Iraqi regime’s militia.” It
added, “Independent sources describe the allegation that the Mojahedin
personnel would be part of the Iraqi regime’s militia in the probable
war in the future as those fabricated by the Iranian Intelligence
Ministry.” “These sources added that reliance on this information and
promulgating them is to distort the reality.” “Sources close to
Iran-Iraq issues noted, ‘The People’s Mojahedin are exclusively engaged
in resisting against the Iranian regime.’ These sources added, ‘Through
a number of its agents, the Intelligence Ministry has embarked on this
misinformation campaign.’”
Earlier, on May 22, 2002, Reuters news agency quoted “a copy of a 1999
legal document signed by a senior official of a major Iraqi Kurdish
group that said there was no evidence the Mujahideen took part in the
Iraqi government's 1991 campaign against the Kurds.” The document
added, We can confirm that the Mujahedin (sic) were not involved in
suppressing the Kurdish people neither during the uprising nor in its
aftermath. We have not come across any evidence to suggest that the
Mujahedin have exercised any hostility towards the people of Iraqi
Kurdistan."
10. The suggestion to put the Mojahedin on trial is a desperate effort
to whitewash the atrocities of the Tehran regime against the Mojahedin
and innocent Iraqi citizens in previous years. Since 1993, the clerical
regime has carried out 140 terrorist operations against the Mojahedin,
killing dozens and wounding hundreds. Hundreds of Iraqis have also
fallen victim to these terrorist operations. On April 18, 2001, the
Iranian regime breach international law and UN Security Council
resolutions and fired 77 missiles at Mojahedin camps in seven Iraqi
cities. Subsequently, in May and June 2001, more than 5,000
parliamentarians and political personalities across the world issued a
statement, condemning “the use of surface-to-surface Scud missiles and
weapons of mass destruction by the Iranian regime against the Mojahedin
and the Iranian Resistance and innocent civilians as a crime against
humanity” and called for “binding international decisions against the
Iranian regime.”
The clerical regime’s leaders must no doubt be put on trial in an
international tribunal for perpetrating hundreds of terrorist
operations across the world and for the execution of 120,000 political
prisoners and present meddling in Iraq, which has so far resulted in
the death of many innocent people.
Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 21, 2004 |
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