NCRI – Following the December 4, 2008 ruling by the Court of First Instance of the European Communities which annulled terrorist designation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) by the European Union, Tehran has stepped up an unprecedented and frantic campaign to prevent delisting of the PMOI. The mullahs' Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) tasked the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to deploy all their resources including diplomatic and economic leverages as well as enticement and intimidation to force the European countries to violate their own court rulings and maintain the PMOI on the terrorist list.
NCRI – Following the December 4, 2008 ruling by the Court of First Instance of the European Communities which annulled terrorist designation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) by the European Union, Tehran has stepped up an unprecedented and frantic campaign to prevent delisting of the PMOI. The mullahs' Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) tasked the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to deploy all their resources including diplomatic and economic leverages as well as enticement and intimidation to force the European countries to violate their own court rulings and maintain the PMOI on the terrorist list.
The Iranian regime's officials in meetings with ambassadors of European countries in Tehran and through their envoys in European capitals, particularly in Brussels, have threatened their counterparts with serious negative economic and political consequences if the PMOI is removed from the EU terrorist list.
In addition, leaders of the regime have been writing letters to heads of states in Europe asking them to prevent the delisting of the PMOI. This has been the topic of discussions with parliamentary delegations visiting Tehran and representatives of the regime’s parliament visiting European countries.
The purpose of the meeting between Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former mullahs' president, and the French Ambassador to Tehran and a visit to European capitals, including Stockholm and Brussels, by the regime’s deputy foreign minister, Mehdi Safari, have been to push for maintaining the terror label on the PMOI. Safari also met with officials of the EU and the European Parliament. In Stockholm, following a meeting with the Swedish foreign minister, Safari met with the parliament deputy speaker and a number of other officials trying to convince them that removing the PMOI from the list would be a total mistake (official news agency IRNA, January 14, 2009).
In a directive to the regime’s foreign ministry and some of its embassies, the regime has emphasized that “the current crisis in Gaza is a very positive element which can be used to halt delisting of the PMOI. In light of the current state of the U.S., the European Union is trying to establish a better position in the region and in the Gaza crisis. Thus, it knows well that Iran can play a major role in bringing the crisis under control.”
Also in recent weeks a number of large European companies which have extensive trade relations with the regime have been acting on behest of the Iranian regime calling on their governments “to be cautious in removing the PMOI from the terrorist list.”
In a report to Ahmadinejad and the SNSC in the mid-January, the mullahs’ foreign ministry stated, “To prevent removal of the Mojahedin from the EU terrorist list, all representative offices of the Islamic Republic in European countries are currently active, providing documents to the EU countries to prove that the PMOI is terrorist and France has pledged to avert removal of the PMOI from the terror list.” It added, “Reports prepared by the intelligence services in some European countries which indicate that the PMOI is a terrorist organization are based on information we have put together in Tehran and supplied to those countries.”
The report also emphasized, “We have warned most of European countries, large and small, that in our view removal of the PMOI from the terrorist list is not acceptable. Some of these countries argue that the European courts’ rulings must be obeyed … In response we say that your courts obviously do not have any documents to prove that the PMOI is a terrorist organization but we have plenty of documents in our possession regarding the crimes committed by the group in Iran. Unfortunately, these documents do not fall within the framework of the EU courts. But you should at least be aware the fact that you are dealing with a bunch of terrorists.”
The clerical regime’s frantic mobilization to stop the removal of the PMOI from the list unveils the regime’s vulnerability and its fear of the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance as the sole threat to its existence. The solution to Iran's problem is a democratic change.
The unlawful terror label placed on the legitimate resistance of the Iranian people has been fueling the Iranian regime’s execution, torture and terror mechanisms on one hand and has taken hostage the rule of law as well as the most fundamental democratic values in Europe on the other.
Thus, the Iranian Resistance calls on the EU Council and its member states to adopt a firm position against the regime’s schemes and implement European court rulings immediately and confirm that the PMOI is longer on the terrorist list.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 24, 2009