As the situation in Iraq deteriorates, the prospect of the Americans being able to open a second front against the highly-militarised Iranians would be disastrous, MEP Struan Stevenson from the UK, vice president of the EPP-ED Group and co-chair of the Friends of a Free Iran Inter-group, told the meeting, adding that Iran is supporting insurgents in neighbouring Iraq.
At the same time, the appeasement and negotiation policy of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has only allowed the Tehran mullahs to buy more time to complete their nuclear enrichment programme, his critics said. Stevenson said the appeasement policy has failed and the Iranians are within two years of producing their own nuclear weapon.
“The final option — the one that we and the Friends of a Free Iran have spoken about and have been telling the European Union to pursue for the past two years — is backing the main opposition group, backing civil society, backing the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which is the key opposition group most feared by the mullahs. That’s why the mullahs get so excited every time we hold a meeting like this,” Stevenson said, adding that backing the Iranian resistance would “give leadership to the many great people within Iran who now on a daily basis are holding protests.” He reminded of the demonstration in January at Tehran University where the students drove away Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, National Council of Resistance of Iran, told New Europe democratic change in Iran is absolutely realistic “because the PMOI has a very extensive underground network in Iran, it has very good resources within the Iranian regime and the Iranian resistance has access to confidential information inside Iran. Our resistance was the first party which revealed existence of nuclear facilities of the Iranian regime,” the soft-spoken, but highly determined Mohaddessin claimed.
“We have thousands and thousands of supporters inside Iran, but unfortunately because of the appeasement policy – policy of western countries – we had a lot of problems inside and outside Iran.”
The Iranian embassy in Brussels could not be reached for comment.
Stevenson, Paulo Casaca (PSE) from Portugal, co-chair of the Friends of Free Iran inter-group, and Piia-Noora Kauppi, leader of Finnish Delegation in EPP, are among a group of 50 MEPs that are pushing for the removal of the PMOI from the EU terror list.
The European Council has refused to take PMOI off the list despite the fact that they were removed from the list by the EU Court of Justice. The MEPs said Tehran has been exerting pressure on the EU to keep PMOI on the list as a condition to continue with negotiations.
Kauppi told New Europe removing PMOI from the EU terror list against the will of Tehran would be a symbolic first step. “Tehran cannot blame the Council that they did something political. They could say that this was purely a judicial matter that the Council had to obey the court verdict. They could disguise it so it’s not a political thing, but it sends the message to Tehran,” she said.
Kauppi said it would be a perfect time to remove PMOI when it comes to the agenda of the upcoming EU summit of March 8-9 because that could be a signal to Tehran that, “OK, those days are gone and a new era will begin.”
Kauppi said the European governments must understand this is a window of opportunity to send a strong message to Tehran.
It appears to be a change of attitude from Solana that the appeasement policy does not work, she said. According to a confidential document leaked to the Financial Times last week, Iran will be able to develop enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear bomb, and there is little that can be done to prevent it.
In an admission of the international community’s failure to hold back Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the document – compiled by the staff of Solana and sent to the Council – says the atomic programme has been delayed only by technical limitations rather than diplomatic pressure. “Attempts to engage the Iranian administration in a negotiating process have not so far succeeded,” it said.
Confidential documents don’t just leak to media, Kauppi said. “I think Solana had to do it under the surface at this stage,” she said. “He is responsible to all 27 governments and it is not an easy task. Now he has signalled under the surface that he is willing to change his approach, if the governments let him.”
While holding a door open to fresh talks, the EU agreed on February 12 to implement UN sanctions on Iran. Officials said the sanctions would strictly follow measures listed in a UN resolution in December.
Kauppi said the sanctions already had some impact. “I have heard from inside Iranian sources – there is no real opposition in Iran in real sense – but some business community-high people have spoken freely in the media saying they have been affected by the economic sanctions, so it is raising criticism vis-a-vis the government,” she said. “We shouldn’t go back from economic sanctions. We have to continue them, but we need to add political sanctions. This is the only thing we can do in the EU and this is now on the agenda.”