By Gabriele Parussini
Bloomberg – Thirteen members of the European Parliament, including a vice-president, said Europe needs to toughen its stance on Iran and support a regime change in that country.
We in the European Parliament fully support the option of giving a democratic chance to the Iranian people,” Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca, first vice President of the EU Parliament, said at a meeting today with leaders of Iran’s exiled opposition in Auvers-Sur-Oise, west of Paris. “It’s time for the EU to change its policy toward the regime. Iran has crossed the red line.”
Vidal-Quadras Roca led a delegation of European MPs at a meeting with Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI, an umbrella organization of resistance movements against the regime in the country.
The international community is trying to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on April 11 said his country had produced enough enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear reactor. His statement came after the Security Council demanded Iran halt its nuclear program by the end of this month.
Envoys meeting in Moscow today to discuss Iran’s nuclear development agreed the Islamic Republic must face international action for defying the United Nations by enriching uranium. A majority of the delegations agreed that sanctions against Iran are necessary, without deciding on specifics, said Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency is preparing a report for the council that will include an assessment of Iranian claims that it produced a supply of enriched uranium sufficient to fuel a reactor.
“More negotiations, further delay and wasting time are not the way to prevent war,” Rajavi said. “Time is running out. Comprehensive sanctions must be imposed against the regime to prevent the catastrophe of the mullahs obtaining nuclear weapons.”
