He was addressing an International Conference, entitled “A call for Justice,” simultaneous with the EU Summit” in Brussels on March 8. The President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, as well as dozens of parliamentarians, jurists and personalities took part in the conference.
Here is the text of Mr. Stevenson’s speech:
It’s my pleasure to be here and to add my comments to what has been said already.
In the European Union, we base everything that we do on the rule of law, on justice, on liberty, on principles of decency and fair play. And this decision by the council of Ministers is a violation of all these principles. It is not a surprise to me that it was not the Summit meeting of the heads of state, of the 27 Prime ministers and heads of states who took this decision. It was the plural Finance ministers meeting in January, people who normally deal with budgets and figures and numbers that had this placed on their agenda in a cynical ploy, because whatever is expected to know about this particular complex matter is a cynical ploy by the council to violate and usurp the rule of law by the highest court in the European union.
And that is absolutely intolerable to all of us that a Council seeks to play itself above the highest court in Europe. Who are they to make a ruling that the annulment of the PMOI’s position on the terror list is to be ignored? Who are they to say we invite the PMOI to submit a dossier to us and we will then decide on whether the PMOI remain on the terror list or not? They are not courts! This is the Council of ministers. And indeed in this case the council of Finance minister.
But it goes further than this. The integrity of myself as an MEP, of the eminent peers of House of Lords, of the thousand parliamentarians who have signed this letter of protests, of the tens of thousands of people who will appear in Brussels today protest. Our integrity, every single one of us is being called into question by this decision by the council. They are saying that we all of us collectively support terrorism. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a travesty and this is something I will not tolerate. I am very glad that all of you here are collectively saying that we refuse to bow to this violation of the rule of law and fair play.
The real terrorist, as Alejo Vidal Quadras said at the beginning, is Mr. Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran. The man who has denied the Holocaust, who has invited the previous leader of the Ku Klux Klan as an honour guest to Iran to Holocaust denial conference, who has said he wishes to wipe Israel of the map, who has told the Israelis that they are living their final days on this earth, who has incited the fundamentalists towards committing genocide. This is the real terrorist.
The man who is pouring tens of thousands of revolutionary guards into neighbouring Iraq to inflame insurgency, who is providing sophisticated weapons that is daily killing thousands of innocent people in neighbouring Iraq, the man who has financed Hamas to foment civil war in Palestine, who has been behind the Hezbollah war against Israel in Lebanon; this is the real terrorist.
And yet this is the person who the west seeks to appease through the decision on the PMOI and the terror list to appease through every action that Javier Solana has taken in the past which has simply given time to the mullahs to continue with their nuclear enrichment program so that the experts tell us we are now within 18 months of Iran having a nuclear weapon, in order they can become the first gigantic suicide bomber, the first state suicide bomber in the world and this is a terrifying prospect.
Now Mrs. Rajavi and the PMOI offer the alternative to either appeasement which is leading us towards a disaster or military intervention in Iran which will be a catastrophe. We know from the mullahs own research, from their own publications that there have been over four thousand demonstrations against the regime in the last 12 months. Brave people were prepared to stand up and demonstrate against the fascist dictatorship that is now oppressing that country where they executed more people in 2006 than any other country except China in the world. Brave people were prepared to take this risk and it offends me greatly when I hear civil servants from the Foreign Office in the UK or when I hear Javier Solana saying that there is no evidence of support for the PMOI in Iran. 120.000 of them have been executed, 500.000 have been tortured and they are still in prison. There is no evidence? This is a disgraceful statement. And the tens of thousands who march here today in Brussels should be the most powerful evidence of all to these 27 Prime ministers and heads of state that we will not lie down and tolerate this appeasement policy and this violation of the rule of law in Europe.
Mrs. Rajavi, the PMOI are the biggest opposition movement. That is why the mullahs fear them, that is why the mullahs want them kept on the terror list to bind their hands. But they are the only ones who offer a leadership to civil society in Iran, to the people crying out to overthrow the regime. They are the only ones who will offer a secular democracy, human rights, women rights, the rule of law, the abolition of the death penalty, the abolition of nuclear weapons. What on earth in the west do we want? Do we want to start talking to Ahmadinejad, a man who is the embodiment of Adolph Hitler, or do we wish a secular democracy?
So thank you for all you have done Mrs. Rajavi and I wish you great success with today’s demonstration.