NCRI – Some 20 Euro-MPs attended a meeting titled "Ahmadinejad and European solution" in solidarity with the Iranian Resistance and its main component, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).
The meeting, held at the European Parliament in Brussels on February 22, was initiated by the EP inter-parliamentary group, Friends of a Free Iran, in the wake of the recent failed attempts by the EU to convince the clerical dictatorship in Iran to stop its uranium enrichment activities which resumed last month in violation of the November 2004 Paris agreement.
The meeting was jointly chaired by Paulo Casaca, MEP from the Socialist group and Struan Stevenson, Vice-chair of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats.
Voicing concern over the prospect of the EU policy toward the Iranian regime as its nuclear threat is becoming more evident, speakers criticized the current policy of appeasement by the EU and called for tough measures against the regime. The speakers were unanimous in their belief that the solution to Iranian problem is regime change through people and their resistance. The first step in this direction would be removal of EU’s terror tag on the PMOI, they said.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Casaca stressed that the EU had no evidence to prove that the PMOI should be on the terror list and that this was merely done on the basis of a demand by the Iranian dictatorship. He described this as part of a "dirty deal" and refuted the biased report by the Human Rights Watch against the PMOI as being along the same lines. He referred to allegations against the PMOI in HRW’s report and said he could find no bases to any of them when he visited Camp Ashraf last year to investigate the charges.
Mr. Casaca also expressed regrets that mullahs’ Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was received by the EP on Monday and noted that he did not even deny his involvement in terrorist crimes when he was asked about his record in Turkey as the regime’s ambassador.
Estonian MEP, Tunne Kelam, from the group of European Democrats said that it was extremely difficult to extract anything positive from the ruling regime in Iran. He underscored the need to deal with mullahs’ nuclear ambitions if an inevitable, dangerous war was to be avoided. He praised the Iranian Resistance for its valuable role in exposing clerical regime’s nuclear weapons program and said that it was extremely unjust to classify the PMOI among groups which target innocent people.
The Swedish Euro MP and Vice-chair of EP’s Women’s Committee, Ms. Eva Britt Svensson, joined her colleagues in condemning the human rights violations in Iran and emphasized that her presence in the meeting was aimed to show her solidarity with the Iranian Resistance.
Karin Resetarits, Austrian MEP from the Liberal Group, strongly condemned the regime’s nuclear activities and called on her government which holds the EU presidency to review terror list. She described Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, as the hope of millions of Iranians who oppose the religious dictatorship ruling Iran and emphasized that the best policy for the EU would be to open a dialogue with Mrs. Rajavi.
Mogens Camre, Vice-chair of the Union for Europe of the Nations Group from Denmark, blamed the EU’s weak stand vis-ÃÂ -vis Iran’s religious dictatorship reflected in the unprincipled policy to allow the mullahs to press for nuclear weapons and suppress the Iranian people with impunity. "It is in fear of democracy and progress that the regime is suppressing the people and the PMOI was labeled as a terrorist group," said Camre. He reiterated that there can be no dialogue with professional killers who are now in power in Iran and any one who sought freedom is an enemy of this regime. But he also stressed that it was almost impossible to overthrow the regime with an empty hand.
German member of the European Parliament and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee from Group of the European United Left, André Brie, said he had visited Camp Ashraf twice and could find no proof to any of the charges made by the HRW against the PMOI. He said that HRW had lost its credibility and that he was convinced that the PMOI had nothing to do with terrorism. "It is a legitimate resistance movement with democratic institutions," he said.
Erik Meijer of the same parliamentary group from the Netherlands noted the horrific state of human rights in Iran and spoke of Hojjat Zamani, a member of the PMOI, hanged secretly after almost five years imprisonment. He agreed with Mrs. Rajavi in that the supreme leader of the clerical regime had declared war on Iranian people and the international community by propelling Ahmadinejad to presidency. He called for a new EU policy on Iran and said Europe should stand with the Iranian people and defend democracy, freedom and human rights.
Aloyzas Sakalas, a Lithuanian Euro-MP from the Socialist group, briefly spoke about the Iranian regime and stressed on the urgent need to remove the PMOI from the EU terror list.
Jaroslav Zvěřina, Czech member of the EP from the group of European Democrats, said there was nothing in the world like freedom and condemned the brutal suppression in Iran, in particular of young Iranians. He said he knew of no opposition movement as large and as strong as the PMOI and rejected any possibility of having meaningful dialogue with the criminals who rule Iran.
The Finnish MEP, Pia Noora Kauppi, from the European Democrats, strongly criticized the EU’s policy of appeasement that only provided the mullahs time to advance their nuclear program. She said no one doubted that the regime is after nuclear weapons. "Europe should act before it was too late," she said, while criticizing the EU’s approach to the PMOI which appeared as if it was being punished for its activities. She said the most important task for all was to get the organization removed from the terror list.
While endorsing the comments by Kauppi and the others, Anne Ferreira, the French member of the EP from the Socialist group, noted that a growing number of MEPs were joining in support of the PMOI and this could be spread even further to make sure that the group was removed from the terror list.
The Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson was the final speaker. He gave a shocking account of human rights violations in Iran including the hanging of children.
He described the clerical regime as being worse than the Nazis. He strongly criticized the EU’s policy of appeasement which allowed the regime to dominate Iraq and use that country as a spring board to spread Islamic fundamentalism throughout the region. He called for active support to the PMOI to free Iran and underscored the urgency of removing the terror tag from the group. He regretted that the Iranian people had to suffer for such a long time under the mullahs’ regime.
