On Wednesday, Sir David Amess, a renowned Member of the United Kingdom’s Parliament, held a press conference, introducing his new book.
This event was attended by several members of the UK House of Commons and House of Lords. While presenting his book, Sir Ames also referred to his activities supporting the Iranian people and their organized Resistance Movement. Sir Ames also spoke about the Iranian regime’s human rights violations. Other participants of this conference referred to Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s new president, and his role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. They also called on the UK government to put pressure on the Iranian regime. Members of the Iranian community also attended this event.
The following is the excerpts of this conference.
Dear Iranian friends, I want to thank you members of the Anglo Iranian communities in the United Kingdom for supporting me and my work for nearly four decades and for reading my latest book Eyes and Ears: A Survivor’s Guide to Westminster.
This book is intended as a guide for the future generation of politicians in the United Kingdom and offers an insight into the many changes which I have witnessed throughout my time in parliament and the many great events and debates it could also be an interesting read for you especially as been working together very closely for the last as I say nearly four decades to promote human rights and democracy in Iran.
And as one can read in the book even in our democracy you must be able to navigate challenges, heated debates, forge alliances and respect the opinion of the opposition. and I do believe that our parliament is the mother of all parliaments.
But ladies and gentlemen the most important thing is to never compromise on your core values and principles and never give up on the fight for a just cause which this most certainly is.
We have been together through several challenging issues, including the prescription of the main Iranian opposition the PMOI from the UK blacklist and convincing successive labor and conservative governments to pursue and implement a firm policy on Iran.
These campaigns have been a truly cross-party effort and enjoyed widespread support, I’m delighted to say, in both Houses of Parliament.
So today we are pressing ahead together to shed light on the alarming human rights situation in Iran and to urge the United Kingdom government and the rest of the world to hold regime leaders to account in order to end the pervasive culture of impunity in Iran.
In this regard, we have been successfully bringing attention to the documented involvement of the Iranian regime’s new president، Ebrahim Raisi، in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. a crime against humanity. a possible genocide. an arguably the worst crime by the regime in its 40-year reign.
And we are making great progress in establishing a United Nations inquiry into these mass executions and raises roll as a first step to prosecuting him and other regime leaders in an international tribunal.
So I hope that soon you and the Iranian people can do what I have proudly done in over three decades nearly four and that representing constituent in the House of Commons.I hope that this book Ayes and Ears: a survivor’s guide to Westminster will be a source of inspiration for young Iranians and the next generations in Iran to get involved in politics and prepare for the future after the Mullahs have gone to Iran taking up the task to rebuild the country and help the great nation of Iran to live up to its great potential.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you for all your support and best wishes. Thank you for joining us for this event and I do hope that you will enjoy the interview by two of my parliamentary colleagues which were now followed
Interview:
Well hello everyone and it’s an absolute delight to be speaking to the community with which I stand united in supporting your efforts to do something about the present regime in Iran.
David Amess:
I’m so glad I did go to Albania to see the camp and to listen to first hand to Mrs. Rajavi and to learn about the massacres that had taken place. and when the three of us look back on the terrorist activities over the last few decades, my goodness didn’t we make some mistakes with Iran. and what happened way back then. I hope it doesn’t repeat itself with Afghanistan. but you know what I’m saying. two-year effort and you’d think yeah it’s all very well going in somewhere but you’ve got the have an exit strategy and you really need to see it as a long-term prospect.
but yeah I think we as parliamentarians to supporting the Iranian resistance movement it’s one of the proudest singers I’ve ever done. and of course, to my horror we found out did we know that they tried to blow us up. We were completely in the dark about that. so the fact that they thought we were all worth blowing up much that the strategy of our dear friends is working
David Jones:
And of course not only that David but the attack on the gathering in Paris three years ago was actually masterminded by a serving diploma. a serving Iranian diplomat who quite clearly therefore must have been acting with the blessing of Tehran. and I think that it’s interesting that case has probably thrown into focus the influence of Iran not only in the region but in the wider world which I take the view is it is pretty malign. and over the last few weeks, we’ve seen the attacks on the ships in the gulf of four moves and we’ve seen the election of someone who is by any standard a hardliner as president of Iran so do share my view that the world now more than ever needs to be aware of the international threat that Iran poses.
David Amess:
Oh David I totally agree with you and as I bore people when I think about what happened with Iraq I will regret to my dying day that I did go to the chamber was going to vote against it because I wasn’t convinced by Tony Blair but once he said about the weapons of mass destruction, of course, we got completely the wrong target goodness sake ….so yeah I’m very worried about what’s happened in Iran. and to cheer up our audience David and Mark, I do think that before the end of the year we should try and orchestrate between as parliamentarians a big debate. let’s try and get a little bit more focus on it and see if we can blend it into these other things that are happening. Have you got a strategy, David, that we could use to try and get more focus on the situation in Iran?
David Jones:
well I mean one thing we should be focusing on and I know that you and I and probably Mark too have been over the last few years. but we should be pressing. It is an inquiry sponsored by the united nations into the massacre of 1988 when over 30,000 Iranians who were political opponents of the regime were executed. were murdered. and ever since then, the Iranian resistance has been calling for an inquiry. and I personally think it’s a scandal that inquiry has not yet taken place. the UN special rapporteur on Iran has called for such an inquiry. so I actually think that this is the one issue where we could get a lot more public interest in the issue of Iran. because of course the new president of Iran it seems to me was very closely associated with the events of 1988 and not suggesting for a moment that he was responsible for them but he was certainly part of the senior echelons of the regime at that particular time. and I think we need to focus attention on the sort of people who are governing Iran at the moment. and not least the fact that two of his recent cabinet appointees are currently sought by Interpol for their actions in connexion with that massacre. so I think that that is the one issue that really could focus attention on not only what is happening in Iran at the moment but what people in the Iranian regime have been responsible for in the past.
David Amess
David you and I should put on a debate?
David Jones:
Well let’s do that
David Amess: and Mark couldn’t you have one in the Lords as well? I know your procedures are different.
Mark McInnes:
Absolutely and just to say why the debate is so important in both chambers as I initially when I entered the Lords and I had some really good advice which is found some topics that you’re genuinely interested in and pursue them rigorously. and that’s what I’ve done. and I happened to speak when I’m in crush debates I spoke it was one of the minorities in Iran which then led to a good friend David Alton approaching me saying why don’t you become involved in this free Iran movement and I think I’ve constantly made those points having debates in parliament is important because otherwise there is a big body of colleagues you don’t understand Iran is not just a danger to the people of Iran but it’s a destabilizer of the entire Middle East. Iran is the terrorist sponsor across the Middle East. and unless people like us are constantly making those points we ended a situation where I’m afraid to say it’s partly because of this issue of a lack of world and US leadership often in this issue that people think Oh well there’s nothing that can be done and that’s a problem for the Iranians and it can’t be. this is a worldwide problem that we’ve all got to look at. people need to understand we use the word election. there is only an election in Iran once the candidates have been determined by the Mullahs. so we just need to be very clear that in that country people do not have a democratic choice and there is no democracy. and I think a lot of colleagues need to be reminded of that as often as possible.
David Jones:
The point that Mark was making there about being a destabilizing influence in the region. I think a lot of people don’t understand the extent to which Iran is involved in Syria at the moment. the extent to which it is a sponsor of terrorism in places like Lebanon and again but it is sponsoring the Houthi in Yemen. it is a very disruptive malign influence in the Middle East and as I say we’ve now seen as a consequence of the Paris terror attack it is spreading its interest right across into Europe and the wider world. there have been Iranian-sponsored attacks in South America even. so we have to be very much aware of what the Iranian regime is doing and I think that the suggestion of the debate is an extremely good one and I have no doubt that we’ve got some colleagues who would be happy to support that suggestion.
David Amess:
so, ladies and gentlemen you both heard from David and Mark how determined they are that the current president of Iran shouldn’t get away with what happened in 1988. and I think the three of us are committed to having a debate.
Ladies and gentlemen before we sign off, I would ask my two friends David and Mark to share with you a message about the future of Iran David would you mind going first?
David Jones:
Yeah, thanks, David and thank you very much for having me on this chat which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I think that so far as Iran is concerned we have to understand that it’s the oldest civilization in the world and they have the Persians have proved themselves to be extremely resilient people they are going through the most awfully difficult time at the moment. and they’ve now been frankly taken over by a regime that wants to keep the country in the dark ages but there is an international body of Iranians in almost every country in the world who are determined to ensure that democracy is restored to Iran. and that people can live a 21st-century life in Iran of the sort that you and I take for granted. and I think they deserve all the support that they can get from parliamentarians not only in the United Kingdom but throughout the world. so I think my messages please do keep the faith because you’ve shown yourself to be resilient over the centuries and I’m sure that the great people of Iran will once again know freedom once this miserable period is over.
Mark McInnes:
Thank you, David, that’s been a great honor and to be able to involved in this today and also to stay that we just spoke earlier this cynicism about some MPs I think the fact all profits from your broker going to charities says much for you and so much with the rehabilitation of the politicians across the UK but in terms of Iran, I wanted to say I think we’ve learned over the last 40 years that it’s very important and states that democracy is homegrown and that democracy comes from those who live in the country and their commitments. and I think we’ve all seen across the Iranian resistance movement a clear plan as to how democracy can be brought about and how Iran country that we all love and could play such an important part in the future of the international community can be brought on and be able to play its part in the humanity in a world where do not fear regime doing harm across the region.
