Source: Le Monde website
Le Monde, January 13 – Once more on December 27, the uprising of the Iranian people against the tyrannical regime of the mullahs was suppressed brutally. The already long list of Iranian patriots who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of their people is elongated by many more being slaughtered and injured. The nation of Iran does not want anything but the establishment of democracy. The uprising that started in June 2009 had one particular goal: The fall of Khamenei’s dictatorship and his clown, Ahmadinejad, who respond to this request only through aggression and terror. The cry of the demonstrators is quite clear: “Down with the Dictator”, “Khamenei’s a murderer, his rule is void!”
Despite the excessive use of all its suppressive forces, the regime is not able to harness the uprising. Its reaction, embodied in the arrangement of a hurried “anti-demonstration,” was not effective. The regime’s propaganda which targeted the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) only displays the ultimate devastation of the dictator. Immediately on the next day of the demonstration in “support” of the regime, Iranians poured out into the streets of the cities across the country, challenging the suppressive forces of the dictator one more time.
On the international level, the regime, facing a cowardly West, is aware of their existing economic interests (Areva, Total, Renault…for France) and knows that the only thing it might face would be some statements (from the Westerners) that only pay lip service to the public. While the mullahs follow the strategy of enriched uranium and the menace of getting armed with a nuclear weapon exists, they are encouraged by the silence of their fellow conspirators among Western democracies.
However, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is certainly one of the main groups opposing the regime, revealed the uranium enrichment sites in 2002. Yet, there was no action taken by the international community. Only was it in 2009 that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raised the issue with no considerable follow-up to this very day.
Cracks within the regime have started growing into chasms. Cries have been heard on the international arenas. The President of the United States, who has resumed the policy of appeasement and “engagement” for a whole year, is showing signs of despair. The massacre of the Iranian citizens in front of cameras, the slaughter of the Iranians who struggle for the freedom of their people, has shattered the legitimacy of the mullahs’ regime.
What can we do?
The French government must end its dual policy: on one hand, it issues statements that magnify the condemnation of mullahs’ suppression; on the other, it supports economic groups such as Total, Areva and Renault, whose presence in Iran is in fact supports the regime. It is time we show our solidarity with the Iranian people in their heroic battle to break away from the chains of religious fascism. We must suspend our diplomatic relations with mullahs’ regime.
In the name of French freedom lovers, in the name of democratic traditions, our parliamentarians must raise their concerns. We cannot close our eyes to what is happening in front of us on TV monitors. The ancient people of Iran, the inheritors of thousands of years of history and civilization, have the right to expect the French people, their representatives in the parliament and their government to have solidarity with them. To have a role in the fall of a beast-like regime is only possible through isolating it and through a clear support of its opposition, particularly those who overtly support a secular and democratic regime and for this reason have spent time in both the Shah and the mullahs’ prisons. It is time we walked out of confusion. We must stand side by side with the people of Iran who fight against a suppressive despot. We must show the regime of Iran that the normalization process of our relations with them only depends on when they have respect for basic freedoms, particularly freedom of speech and freedom of selecting their popular system of governance.
Jean-Pierre Brard, Member of Parliament from Seine-Saint-Denis
Honorary Mayor of Montreuil
* This is the English translation of the article published on Le Monde Website