NCRI – A day after the release of a report by the Iraqi Study Group in the United States, a conference was held at the British Parliament entitled, "The Iranian Fundamentalist Regime: A Growing Threat."
Over 25 members of both Houses of Parliament from the three main political parties addressed the conference and gave support to a plan proposed by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom which dealt with Iran and the Middle East. The following is the text of a speech by Lord Corbett of Castle Vale, who chairs the committee:
Years of the west giving in to the mullahs’ demands, such as putting the PMOI on the terror list and the bombing of Camp Ashraf in Iraq, although the PMOI was known to be neutral and not involved in the Iraq conflict three years ago.
What has appeasement gained? There have been gains by the mullahs who have learned that their demands are always met and that their breaches of international obligations and other undertakings over nuclear developments go unpunished. Appeasement has won the mullahs more time to develop the facilities and technology needed to build nuclear weapons and missiles capable of carrying them to eastern and southern Europe.
Proven mullah meddling in Iraq, with the training, arming and financing of many of the militias now killing British and other coalition troops, despite their assurances of non-interference. The west knows the mullahs arm and finance Hezbollah, now intent on destabilizing the elected government of Lebanon and whose attacks on Israel brought death and destruction to the people they claim to protect. The west also knows that Iran finances Hamas in Palestinian territories as part of its policy of trying to sabotage efforts to solve the dispute with Israel and add to regional turbulence. Wherever there is violence in the Middle East, the mullahs fingerprints are all over it, all part of the regimes aim of exporting fundamentalism.
The Iraq Study Group report yesterday floated the idea of talks with Iran and Syria to try to end the appalling sectarian violence and the slaughter of civilians in Iraq as its elected government tries to build democracy. This means talking to the very people who are fuelling the violence and are intent on replacing the government with a sister fundamentalist theocracy. Make no mistake, the mullahs will see this suggestion as further evidence of western weakness and lead to yet more demands for concessions and the continuing crackdown on the Iranian resistance. Talking to the mullahs about ending violence in Iraq is like talking to those who have robbed your home and stolen your possessions about domestic security. The west should talk to those who can help solve the regions problems, not those who cause them.
The fanatic fundamentalists now have a regime which believes in and works towards what they call ‘a new Islamic revolution.’ The business of the mullahs is in creating problems in the region, not solving them. They also need to direct attention from their growing unpopularity at home. As ‘The Sun’ said on 14 November: ‘They want America humiliated….They believe they destroyed one superpower, the once mighty Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Now they think they can bring the US to its knees in Iraq.’
Last month a report to the UN Security Council said Iran had made three illegal arms shipments to Somalia in a bid to secure supplies of uranium ore. This support for the fundamentalist Supreme Council of Islamic Courts now controls the area where the uranium is united. So the mullahs tentacles stretch across continents and remind us all of the real and present danger of rampant fundamentalism.
The continuing mystery about the west’s attitude to Iran is why it prefers to talk to terrorists in Tehran rather than the victims of terror, the resistance. It is the resistance which revealed to the world the mullahs deceit over its nuclear weapons programme. It is the resistance which contests and confronts Tehran’s fundamentalism. The one thing the mullahs fear is what the resistance offers, democracy. So why isn’t the resistance made an ally of the west in the bid by millions of Iranians for democracy and freedom? The west has tried being reasonable. Now it needs to be robust.
Appeasement has rewarded only the mullahs. Military force from outside is not the answer. Democracy is the way ahead and western support for the resistance would send a signal to those who cry freedom that they do not stand alone, that we stand with them.
Removing the terror tag from the victims of terror would send a signal to the mullahs that the west will no longer dance to their tune. The mullahs put so much effort around the world into attacking the PMOI and its NCRI coalition of which it is a part, because they well understand the leadership it offers foreshadows the end of their regime. It is a matter of when, rather than if.
The west needs to stop the softness and start the sanctions to enforce Iran’s compliance with its nuclear obligations. Our government, the US, EU and others should demonstrate support for nationalist and anti-fundamentalist forces in Iraq working for a secular democracy. This is the route to helping the Iraqi government’s efforts to win support to end the sectarian slaughter and random violence.
Britain, the US and other coalition partners must put aside their dispute with the Iranian Resistance and instead turn to dialogue. The Resistance can and should be partners, not pariahs, allies to all those wanting a peaceful and proud Iran and to those Iraqi’s wanting an end to mullah meddling that costs both the lives of innocent Iraqi’s and British and other coalition men and women. Working with the NCRI can open a new way ahead to democracy in both Iran and Iraq, a democracy which the people of both countries have the responsibility to achieve.
The tide of fundamentalism must be turned for the sake of Iran and the rest of the world. Not to make a change to a robust approach to Iran will embolden the mullahs and encourage their aspirations to fuel the flames of the fundamentalism which they espouse. I hope PM Blair sees the sense of this and encourages President Bush in Washington today to do the same.
We are at a crossroads with Iran. We must take the right road because the alternative of spreading rampant fundamentalism, whose heart beats in Tehran, is bleak and menacing to the Middle East and the wider world. The mix of rampant fundamentalism and nuclear weapons is a lethal cocktail that could trigger a regional confrontation which would threaten the security of the world. The stakes really are that high.
