Tunne Kelam: “Our first task in dealing with Iran should be putting human rights dialogue first, because only a democratic government that can be relied in negotiations will respect agreements and commitments. The present Iranian regime has not been able and willing to do it.”
Text of speech by Tunne Kelam, Member of the European Parliament from Estonia, April 9, 2012
Thank you so much, Struan Stevneson, Madam Maryam Rajavi and all the freedom fighters here. I think the keyword for today’s approach unfortunately once again is appeasement. Appeasement which has not been banished since the 1930s.
It has been deeply compromised but it is double-talk, hypocrisy, conducting short-term interests, cowardliness, corruption and lacking moral backbone. And that is what is happening today in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxsNMaNIK6s
Speaking about the Ukrainian crises, Russia and Iran have for years both been exporting corruption, which is the basis of appeasement. Not facing realities, trying to shun them trying to find another complacent solution.
Iranian experts on sanctions some weeks ago said that only through a network of fake companies has Iranian government been able to re-export to 87 billion dollars in 2011 and 2012. 87 billion, not million dollars. This is undermining the sanctions.
So we have to face this reality, and we tried to do this in the latest European Parliament resolution. Unfortunately it was forsaken by false optimism, and we managed to balance it more or less but it could be much better. Fortunately the Iranian authorities still find it irritating, thank God.
We also face the reality in the desperate quest for moderate dictators. In practice we don’t know that they are available but then some people need to invent them. And this leads to unhealthy and unreliable compromises which are not compromises at all.
Madam Ashton unfortunately has failed in doing her job for Iraq and Camp Ashraf. She has failed in her ambitions. That is why our first task in dealing with Iran should be putting human rights dialogue first, because only a democratic government that can be relied in negotiations will respect agreements and commitments. The present Iranian regime has not been able and willing to do it. Our foremost task is to save the lives of 2,900 inmates of Camp Liberty.
Let us remember that it is also the responsibility of the United States government because it was part of the official deal that the US took the PMOI off of the blacklist, forcing them to move from Ashraf to Camp Liberty.
Too many have been murdered and this is not in the statistics. I personally know several of them that I met in Camp Ashraf several years ago and they are gone now, murdered.
We can’t fail these people and we can’t fail you Madam Rajavi, with all your efforts and your struggles and personal losses.
I say also to those colleagues who are about to leave the European Parliament, we will remain committed to the cause of Iranian freedom because it has become our common cause. The change will take place and until then we will all remain politically and morally members of the democratic resistance, and we are not passive members. We have grown, and it has made very healthy moral impact on all of us. We have changed during this fight, and I hope and I am convinced that together we have and we can bring about change in Iran and have will finally have a democratic and free Tehran.
