Latest attempt to appease Tehran mullahs was revealed
NCRI – NCRI – The Friends of a Free Iran parliamentary inter-group has released this declaration after a press conference in Strasbourg :
In a press briefing on Wednesday, February 14, dozens of MEPs protested against the Council of Ministers’ decision to ignore the ruling of the European Court of Justice annulling the Council’s decision to remove the Iranian resistance from the EU’s terror list.
Latest attempt to appease Tehran mullahs was revealed
NCRI – NCRI – The Friends of a Free Iran parliamentary inter-group has released this declaration after a press conference in Strasbourg :
In a press briefing on Wednesday, February 14, dozens of MEPs
In this meeting chaired by Struan Stevenson, (Vice President EPP-ED), MEPs from all the major political groups called on the Council of Ministers to refrain from crossing recognized red lines in Europe and not to make a mockery of the rule of law. They warned the Council of Europe against engaging in another useless attempt to appease Tehran’s mullahs.
Mr. Stevenson said: "We at the European Parliament are very upset about defiance of the Court ruling by the Council of Ministers. We will do whatever possible to prevent the rule of law being undermined. The court ruling has removed the PMOI from the terror list explicitly. Any attempt to violate the court ruling would be a catastrophe."
Ms. Piia-Noora Kauppi (EPP-ED) said that in order to confront the threat emanating from Tehran, the real option is to support the PMOI that leads the Iranian people’s resistance. She said that we should convince the Council of Ministers that it has to accept the Court ruling to remove them from the terror list.
Mogens Camre, (Vice President of UEN) said if the PMOI is a terrorist organisation, there are many people in European countries whose parents would be terrorists too, since they fought against Nazi occupation. He elaborated: "I am the son of one of these terrorists."
Soren Sondergaard (GUE-NGL) said that we should do anything possible in our countries to stop the policy of appeasement vis-a vis the Iranian regime. This policy has brought only damage to European interests so far.
Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran stated: According to reliable information from inside Iran, the clerical regime has campaigned unrelentingly and with all its means and resources for the past few weeks and has been exerting pressure on the EU in order for the PMOI to be placed the EU terror list again in defiance of the Court order.
He elaborated: "For instance, we have found out that Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the President of the regime’s Expediency Council, in recent meetings with the ambassadors of major European countries in Tehran, told them repeatedly that the Iranian regime would react positively and would view it favorably if the PMOI is placed once again on the terror list."
On the 12th December, in a landmark decision, the European Court of Justice overturned the EU’s decision to brand the PMOI as a terrorist organisation. The EU Council of Ministers defied the court order and announced on Jan 30 that it has "…Decided to provide the PMOI with a statement of reasons for keeping it on the EU’s ‘asset freeze list of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts, and to give the PMOI one month to present its views, together with any supporting documentation".