The text of letter by the British Parliamentarians to EU Presidency urging blacklisting of Iranian regime’s IRGC:
Excellency José Sócrates
Prime Minister of Portugal
Rue da Imprensa ÃÂ Estrela
4-1200-888 Lisboa
Portugal
31 October 2007
Dear Prime Minister Sócrates,
It was a great stride in the war against terrorism when the Bush administration blacklisted the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and accused its elite Qods Force of “supporting terrorism”.
The Bush administration’s decision to ban the IRGC came not a moment too soon, with Tehran declaring its intention to push ahead with its nuclear weapons programme in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions 1696, 1737, and 1747 and senior Revolutionary Guards commanders directing terrorist operations against UK and Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defence has made clear that the regime is transferring to Iraq roadside bombs including the deadly EFP technology which is responsible for the majority of Coalition deaths there.
The IRGC, which gets its orders directly from the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is in charge of much of the regime’s production of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) including the A-bomb. It has also been involved in planning and executing more than 100 terrorist operations against foreign nationals and Iranian dissidents in virtually every continent of the world over the past 27 years. Of course, this figure significantly excludes the regime’s daily terrorist activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Interpol has international arrest warrants for senior IRGC commanders for masterminding numerous terror attacks such as the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.
The IRGC has also played a major role in suppressing dissent among an increasingly disenchanted population at home. It is responsible for carrying out the executions of 120,000 members and sympathisers of the main Iranian opposition force, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), 30,000 of whom were executed in the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. It has also participated in the torture of well over half a million political prisoners over the past two decades.
The regime in Iran makes use of more than 174 forms of physical and psychological torture. The IRGC controls a large portion of Iran’s economy. We have determined that since 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has appointed several hundred Revolutionary Guards commanders to senior Government positions including the recent instalment of Saeed Jalili as Tehran’s new nuclear negotiator.
As such, the U.S. decision to impose sanctions against the IRGC and the Iranian Ministry of Defence will contribute greatly to slashing funding for the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism.
Our committee believes that for sanctions to have a meaningful effect, they must be multilateral. It therefore feels that it is in the interest of world peace and stability and an asset to the fight against terrorism for the European Union and in particular the United Kingdom to follow suit.
We urge EU governments to impose sanctions on the IRGC and issue a ban on this institution of terror so as not to give the regime more time to build a nuclear bomb and pursue its ominous projects in the Middle East.
Our committee does not envisage foreign military action against Iran as a feasible solution to the current nuclear crisis or the regime’s meddling in Iraq. Neither do we feel that the status quo of appeasing the regime and giving it concession after concession as well as holding perpetual rounds of dialogue with the mullahs’ representatives will convince the regime to abandon its illegal activities.
We subscribe to the very viable “Third Option” presented by the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, who has urged the international community to support democratic change in Iran domestically by the Iranian people and their Resistance. This democratic solution to the Iranian problem is the only practical way of preventing a crisis in Iran and the region.
Our Committee has the backing of the majority of MPs and more than 200 Peers in its endeavours for human rights and democracy in Iran and in particular for its stance in support of the “Third Option”.
We believe that the EU and in particular the UK should adhere to the December 2006 ruling of the European Court of Justice by lifting restrictions from the PMOI. This would demonstrate Europe’s commitment to democracy and institutions of law and send a powerful impact to Tehran that the international community will not sit idly by as it seeks to acquire a nuclear bomb and dominate Iraq and the Middle East.