NCRI – In a statement issued on November 8, the Friends of a Free Iran Inter-Parliamentary group at the European Parliament called on the European Union to impose sanctions against the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. The following is the full text of the statement:
Friends of a Free Iran (FOFI), which enjoys a major following among MEPs from all political groups in the European Parliament, calls on the EU to impose sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the main suppressive force of the ruling theocracy, responsible for many terrorist operations against foreign nationals and Iranian dissidents and the sole controller of Iran’s secret nuclear programme. The US Government’s decision to impose sanctions on the IRGC is long overdue and not only because of the role of the IRGC in Iraq and Afghanistan against US and UK forces. We welcome this decision and call on the EU to issue a similar ban on this repressive terror machine of the ruling mullahs.
The Guards comprise the backbone of the Iranian regime’s system of oppression. At least 80 former Guard members sit in parliament out of a total of 290 seats, with others serving as mayors and provincial governors. Former Guard commanders make up about two-thirds of the current cabinet, including Ahmadinejad and the Foreign Minister Mottaki. Former nuclear negotiator Larijani and many other high ranking officials and key government elements are members of the IRGC.
The Revolutionary Guards have grown into a major financial machine, which supplies Tehran’s key economic needs, enabling the fundamentalist regime to spread its terrorist machine throughout the Middle East and even Europe. The Guard Corps controls 30 per cent of Iran’s non-oil exports and more than 57% the country’s imports, in addition to vast new contracts to develop Iran’s oil and gas fields. IRGC now has ties to over one hundred companies that control roughly $12 billion in construction and engineering capital. The IRGC commercial annual revenue is reported to reach at least 5 billion dollars.
The Qods (Jerusalem) Force, the main terrorist apparatus of the IRGC, established 17 years ago, has more than 21,000 Iranian members and tens of thousands non-Iranian mercenaries, including in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and many European countries. The Qods Force has dozens of garrisons across Iran in which it trains its non-Iranian operatives. So far it is reported that at least 7000 suicide bombers have enlisted for volunteer operations in the Qods Force. These are the murderous killers referred to last week by an IRGC commander who said Iran was ready to unleash waves of suicide bombers across Israel and the Middle East if anyone attempts to attack their nuclear installations.
The Argentinean judicial authorities issued international arrest warrants for senior IRGC commanders for masterminding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. Yesterday Interpol rejected Iran’s request to drop arrest warrants against 5 senior officials of the regime.
The IRGC has also played a major role in suppressing dissent among an increasingly disenchanted population at home. It is the organisation responsible for carrying out the executions of 120,000 members and sympathisers of the main Iranian opposition force, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).
It is now absolutely crucial for the EU to contain this terrorist regime. The EU’s policy of appeasement towards the clerical dictatorship has only emboldened the mullahs with their aggressive policies bringing the world closer to yet another catastrophic war. Placing the IRGC on the EU’s terror list and imposing severe restrictions against it would cripple the regime’s war and suppression machine and hinder its ability to build a nuclear bomb. This will not only reduce the possibility of a war in the region but also pave the way for democratic change in Iran.
Finally we believe that the EU should immediately change its harsh, self-destructive and unfair attitude towards the Iranian democratic opposition, the NCRI and the PMOI. The EU presidency should endorse the viable "Third Option" presented by the Iranian opposition leader, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, in the European Parliament three years ago, when she rejected both appeasement and foreign military intervention, urging the international community to support democratic change in Iran domestically by the Iranian people and their Resistance. The only possible goodwill gesture is to adhere to the December 2006 ruling of the European Court of Justice by lifting restrictions imposed on the PMOI.
�� Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament, Spain
�� Paulo Casaca, Co-Chair of the Friends of a Free Iran, Socialist Group, Portugal
�� Struan Stevenson, Vice President of Group of the European People’s Party-European Democrats, Co-Chair of the Friends of a Free Iran, UK
�� Piia-Noora Kauppi, Group of the European People’s Party-European Democrats, Finland
�� Mogens Camre, Vice President of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Denmark
�� Chris Davies, Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, UK
�� Ryszard Czarnecki, Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Poland
�� Konrad Szymanski, Union for Europe of the Nations Group, Poland
�� Erik Meijer, Confederal Group of the European United Left- Nordic Green Left, Netherlands
�� Tunne Kelam, Group of the European People’s Party-European Democrats, Estonia
�� Jaroslav Zverina, Group of the European People’s Party-European Democrats, Czech Republic
�� Aloyzas Sakalas, Socialist Group, Lithuania
European Parliament
Brussels
8 November 2007
