Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Iranian regime, has been emboldened after the recent session of the IAEA and hesitation in referring his regime’s nuclear file to the Security Council. Speaking to the gathering on the anniversary of the suppressive Basij forces (paramilitary militia), Ahmadinejad told Western countries yesterday, “You say there is a chance that Iran’s nuclear activities will be diverted from its main course and that you should prevent it. What right do you have to tell the Iranian nation to abstain from nuclear activities? You are the one that has to be held accountable and you don’t have any right to pose questions.”
Hamid Reza Asefi, spokesman for the regime’s Foreign Ministry stressed on Sunday morning that the Board of Governors of the IAEA had “followed up the case wisely and adoption of no resolution (against Iran) in its recent session clarified many issues.” He added that any plan or negotiation must embody “concrete guarantees for production of nuclear fuel inside Iran.”
The state-controlled daily, Kayhan, had said in an editorial two days ago, “The suggestion on December 6 for restarting the negotiations shows previous threats by the U.S. and its allies to refer our country’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council was an empty threat as was anticipated.”
Western appeasement has emboldened the clerical regime in Iran. Ahmadinejad has personally fired coup de grace shots at over 1300 political prisoners, participated in many terrorist assassinations of dissidents living abroad, and presided over 100 executions and death sentences in the five months since coming to power. Ironically, he is now challenging Western countries by saying: “Who are you in this world to question us about human rights? You are accused and we question you… You must be tried in a court of war criminals. Today you allow your police to shoot at and kill anyone they like in the name of freedom. We have a long list of your crimes before us and we will expose you.”
Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI, commented on Ahmadinejad’s remarks: “The growing insolence of the clerical regime and its brutal violation of human rights, acquiring nuclear weapons, and meddling in Iraq, is the natural consequence of a weak Western policy of retreat and hesitation.” Mr. Mohaddessin called on the international community to refer the issue of the Iranian regime’s violations of human rights, its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and its export of fundamentalism and terrorism to the UN Security Council, and to avert a catastrophe that threatens the region and the world.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
November 27, 2005