NCRI – Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) made the following remarks in relation to the trip to Iran on Wednesday by the Foreign Minister of Norway, Børge Brende:
“This trip takes place amid a wave of mass executions in Iran. Just today the regime carried out five public executions. Two weeks ago the regime mass executed 25 Sunni political prisoners in one day, prompting a condemnation by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. There is now evidence which shows that the victims had been tortured prior to their execution.
Furthermore, an audio tape has been published for the first time of Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s former heir, shedding new light on the scope and pace of the 1988 massacre of at least 30,000 political prisoners, the overwhelming majority of who were activists of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK) that had already been serving their prison terms.
More than 2,600 people have been executed in Iran during Hassan Rouhani’s three-year tenure.
In the meantime, the regime has stepped up its egregious and nefarious conduct in the region, including its all-out military, financial and political support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in the slaughter of the Syrian people.
The Iranian regime uses such trips for propaganda purposes and to justify its repressive policies at home and its support for international terrorism and Islamic extremism.
The notion of moderation under Rouhani is a total myth, and all the factions of the regime are in consensus regarding human rights abuses and export of terrorism.
Any improvement of relations with the regime should be preconditioned upon an improvement in human rights and a halt to executions in Iran. The regime’s human rights abuses and its appalling record should be addressed publicly and explicitly during this trip.”
