NCRI – In a letter to the Prime Minister of Portugal, José Sócrates, whose country holds the current rotating presidency of the European Union, Prof. dr. Henk de Haan, Chairman of the Dutch Group of Friends of a Free Iran, described the U.S. move to blacklist the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a "great stride in the war against terrorism." Text of the letter follows:
On behalf of the Dutch Group Friends of a Free Iran,we have been closely following the developments in Iran and the Iranian regime’s interferences in Iraq and other countries in the Middle East.
It was a great stride in the war against terrorism when the Bush administration blacklisted the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and accused its elite Qods Force of “supporting terrorism”.
The IRGC, which gets its orders directly from the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is in charge of much of the regime’s production of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) including the A-bomb. It has also been involved in planning and executing more than 100 terrorist operations against foreign nationals and Iranian dissidents of the world.
Inside Iran, the IRGC is used as the apparatus for suppression of any move for democracy. Peaceful demonstrations and protests have been brutally suppressed and in recent months the IRGC has clashed with different group of Iranian people including workers, women, students and young people on streets.
It is 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), 30,000 of whom were executed in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.
As such, the U.S. decision to impose sanctions against the IRGC and the Iranian Ministry of Defence will contribute greatly to slashing funding for the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism.
Our committee urges EU governments to impose sanctions on the IRGC and issue a ban on this institution of terror so as not to give the regime more time to build a nuclear bomb and pursue its ominous projects in the Middle East.
Our committee does not envisage foreign military action against Iran as a feasible solution to the current nuclear crisis or the regime’s meddling in Iraq.
We feel that the status quo of appeasing the regime and giving it concession after concession as well as holding perpetual rounds of dialogue with the mullahs’ representatives will convince the regime to abandon its illegal activities.
We subscribe to the very viable “Third Option” presented by the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who said that the world is not obliged to choose between a war and appeasement of the mullahs. She reiterated that there was a solution based on Iranian people and their Resistance where a peaceful change in Iran would be possible. To this end we should play our role by imposing restrictions against the regime’s suppressive apparatus and join Iranian people to achieve their goal which would also contribute to world peace and security.
We believe that the EU should adhere to the December 2006 ruling of the European Court of Justice by lifting restrictions from the PMOI. This would demonstrate Europe’s commitment to democracy and institutions of law and send a powerful impact to Tehran that the international community will not sit idly by as it seeks to acquire a nuclear bomb and dominate Iraq and the Middle East.
