The head of the clerical regime’s Guardian Council, Ahmad Jannati, said during the July 3rd Friday Prayer sermon that the British embassy’s Iranian employees arrested in recent days in Tehran, will be tried for alleged involvement in the recent uprising. The remarks prompted the 27 members of the European Union to summon Iran’s ambassadors in protest to the detention of the embassy employees.
Ahmad Jannati also vowed that the regime will soon broadcast confessions obtained from those arrested during the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people in recent weeks. These are the same confessions obtained from prisoners who have been subjected to barbaric torture by the regime’s Revolutionary Guards. Sadly, Jannati’s criminal remarks failed to instigate appropriate reaction from European Union members, the US, or any other member of the international community for that matter.
Over the past three weeks, the Iranian regime has committed violent and shocking crimes in streets across Iran, such as slitting the throat of a 20-year-old man in broad daylight, and is now subjecting those arrested in the uprising to the most severe forms of torture. Of course, these crimes have prompted many human rights organizations and figures, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and 5 UN rapporteurs, to express their worries. Many European countries have also summoned the regime’s envoys in their respective countries to convey their protest. But, the question is whether these measures are sufficient.
A reaction to any crime or offense committed must be proportional to the breadth and seriousness of the crime itself. One cannot punish a murderer in the same way as a person is punished for passing a red light. The crimes committed by the Iranian regime’s suppressive forces against the people of Iran did not constitute suppression in its classic sense, but were rather genocide and a crime against humanity. A proportionate response taking into account the magnitude of these criminal actions carried out by a regime, which during the past 30 years has completely failed to respect international law and the international community’s expectations, cannot simply end at a verbal condemnation without practical punishment.
The EU’s decision to summon the envoys of the religious fascism ruling Iran in Europe is a positive step but radically insufficient when it comes to the illegitimate regime with a track record of offenses committed against the Iranian people.
Through the slogans of “Death to dictator” and “Death to Khamenei,” the three-week-long popular uprising echoed the general public’s demand for changing the medieval theocracy. As the suppressive forces confront defenseless protestors with utter brutality, we are left with the following reactions from various US and EU officials:
– The Iranian people’s protest is an internal affair and we must not get involved in that country’s domestic issues. Such involvement would empower the mullahs with the argument that associates the domestic uprising with foreign help.
– Even though these days the regime’s hands have been tainted with the Iranian people’s blood, we are forced to carry out a dialogue with this regime. We are forced to cope with it in view of the nuclear weapons dossier and our own national security.
Our response to these arguments is the following:
First: It has become crystal clear for both the US and the EU that long before the leaders of these countries even offered verbal condemnations of the killings in Iran, the bloodthirsty tyrants in Tehran blamed foreigners, including the US and Britain, for interfering in Iran’s internal affairs, just as other dictators have done previously. The only difference is that the Iranian regime propagated these claims with much more zeal and demagoguery than other dictators. No matter what you say, the clerical regime will blame you for interfering in Iran's internal affairs. So, you must avoid shutting your eyes and do not allow the mullahs, who are adept at hostage taking, to take hostage humanity’s conscience in a civilized world and to force you to remain fearful and inactive. Reacting firmly to such barbaric and violent suppression carried out by the regime cannot be viewed as interfering in Iran’s internal affairs. On the contrary, it respects universal humanitarian values.
Second: You have acknowledged that with the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people the regime’s lack of legitimacy has become even more pronounced and obvious. You have said that in the people’s chants you have heard their demand to reject the regime and its Supreme Leader. Today, the whole world has realized that the Iranian people seek to change the regime. If you are truly concerned about your national security and the regime’s ominous nuclear program, why do you not follow the Iranian people’s lead and reject this regime as well? Is it not the case that with the regime’s demise, the nuclear threat would also be removed from the world stage? So, worrying about the vile regime’s nuclear program is not a convincing enough reason for choosing to cope with rulers clearly rejected by the Iranian people.
Let us sincerely hope that no economic interests are involved here and again genuinely urge the international community from a moral point of view to accept an obligation with regards to the thousands of Iranian youths who at this very moment are subjected to the cruelest forms of torture in the regime’s prisons. To this effect, we invite the international community to adopt a firm policy with regards to the clerical regime.
Such a firm policy must include the cessation of all diplomatic relations, imposition of comprehensive sanctions so long as the regime’s suppressive measures persist, and holding of a free election under the supervision of the United Nations and in the context of popular sovereignty and not the absolute rule of clerics. This is the minimum demand of the Iranian people and the awaken conscience of the world from these leaders.
Analysis – Iranian uprising: Beginning of the end (other parts)