There is a crisis in Iran, which is not being widely reported. The so-called elections in Iran are not only illegitimate, they are a total farce.
The great danger is that the British Foreign Office, the European Union and the press in this country will be blind or seduced by this, and there will be phrases that the new President will somehow be a man we can do business with. All the vocabulary of appeasement of the 1930’s will be used to justify a dialogue between the man who emerges from these wholly bogus elections. I make an appeal to the UK government and to the EU to vigorously support the NCRI, and to remove the very cruel and heartless tag of terrorism on the PMOI. It seems to me that the confused thinking being applied by the British Foreign Office to the NCRI and the PMOI is the same kind of response you had 60 years ago, when a brave man, General de Gaulle, and other people fled from Europe. They came here and they were not welcomed. They were treated with the utmost disrespect. There were people in the establishment who traduced them. The United States government of the day refused to recognise de Gaulle. What a total misread of the realities of the situation, and that confused thinking still prevails today here in London and Brussels.
This dialogue with the Iranian regime is not only unfair, but it is foolish in terms of the long term interests of the UK and the European governments, and in terms of our long term objective of bringing peace, stability and democracy to the region.
I regret this very much that the much respected Human Rights Watch fell into the abyss of traducing the NCRI and the PMOI in a report that our friends were not given an opportunity to respond to.
In my view, they have diminished their credence and their influence, certainly amongst many Parliamentarians here in the British Parliament, by swallowing the lies and repeating the traducing of the NCRI in a report last week. I hope that HRW will reflect that it has actually done long term damage amongst legislators, Congressmen, members of parliament, members of the House of Lords, members of the National Assembly in Paris and European Parliament, who have respected that organisation, when they see their approach to the NCRI and the parrot manner in which they have repeated the lies that have been put around about the PMOI by the Iran regime. Traducing people and organisations, has always been unfortunately, a very effective weapon, when you have very little in your armoury, to rubbish and to diminish brave men and women who are fighting for freedom and democracy.
I say this with great certainty that freedom will arise in Iran and President Mrs.Rajavi or the chosen head of the Iranian democracy will no doubt be welcomed here in London in a state visit and you will find all the politicians will be briefed by the British Foreign Office to say they how they always worked for the day of deliverance. We will be saying, “Where were you in 2005, when there was the great danger to those campaigning for freedom, and when these British Parliamentarians were proud to stand by those people fighting for freedom in Iran?”
Mr. Andrew MacKinlay’s speech in a meeting at the House of Commons, May 24 2005