British MPs and peers have urged the UK government to adopt a firm stance with Iran during the talks over the regime’s nuclear ambitions. Lawmakers insisted ‘no dead was better than a bad deal’ during the negotiations with Iran in Geneva.
The statement was made during celebrations by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom for Norwuz – the Iranian New Year.
A press release said: “Speakers expressed their best wishes and greetings to Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Anglo-Iranian community as well as the people of Iran and Iranian refugees at Camp Liberty. They also expressed hope that this year would see an end to the repression in Iran and bring with it freedom and democracy for the Iranian people.”
David Jones MP said: “While supporting Mrs Maryam Rajavi’s movement for the revelations of the regime’s secret nuclear weapons programme since for the past two decades, any nuclear agreement that does not include implementation of UN Security Council resolutions and a halt to enrichment of uranium in addition to the IAEA inspectors having unhindered access to all suspected sites will leave the path open for the regime to continue its ambition to create a nuclear arsenal.”
Lord Carlile of Berriew added: “I do not accept for one moment that it is right to decouple human rights from the nuclear negotiations. In my view to have the nuclear negotiations based on a trust of an untrustworthy regime on the assumption that we later can have a meaningful discussion about the appalling breaches of human rights in Iran is just silly.
“I believe that the regime in Iran is in a process of fooling the West by its fake promises about human rights. Furthermore, I find it very difficult to believe that they will not continue with their nuclear programme whatever is decided in these negotiations.”
And the Committee’s co-chairman Sir David Amess said: “There is an attractive alternative and that is to help the Iranian people to end the religious dictatorship in their country.
“We propose this road map to a more attractive alternative that exist and that not only ends the Mullahs quest for a nuclear weapons but also halt its export for terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, in one political decision, support the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance to bring about democratic change in Iran.
“Back the 10-point plan for future Iran, presented by the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi, that advocates, a free, democratic and nuclear-free Iran based on rule of law, fair elections, gender equality, freedom of press, assembly and expression as well as peaceful coexistence with its neighbours.
“If for whatever reason the International Community, the UN or the US are unwilling to step in to provide protection for the defenceless Iranian refugees in Camp Liberty, then the only moral and honest thing to do is to at least provide them with their arms so that they can protect themselves and their home against aggressions by the Quds-force and Iranian-backed militias, that are gaining grounds in Iraq.”
Kirsty Brimelow QC, President of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, criticised the current situation for Iranian refugees at Camp Liberty as unacceptable, and promised to follow up on an open letter by the BHRC to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that urges an end to the medical and fuel siege on the camp as well as Camp Liberty to be recognised as refugee camp under the supervision of UNHCR.
