Time to Redress a Grave Injustice
The world watches with apprehension as Iran's
ruling mullahs persist with violations of human rights, sponsorship
of terrorism, and nuclear development. The regime threatens regional
and global security through a lethal mix of fundamentalism and
nuclear weapons.
As the EU has tried "constructive engagement" with the
clerical regime, the mullahs have shown no willingness to respond
properly, demanding that the main opposition group, the People's
Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), be listed as a terrorist group. Giving
in to that demand has only helped those who use terror at home
and sponsor it abroad, while the mullahs' nuclear programme continues.
It
is time for the EU to focus on the democratic aspirations of the
Iranian people. Europe and the rest of the world should be on
the side of the millions demanding freedom and human rights, not
those who have stolen these from them.
We
co-chaired a symposium at Church House, Westminster, London, on
22 March, where dozens of members of both Houses of Parliament
from the three major political parties joined more than 500 lawyers,
human rights advocates, trade unionists, clergymen, student activists
and members of the Anglo-Iranian community to call on the Government
to de-proscribe the PMOI and remove a serious impediment to democratic
change in Iran.
Mrs.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the opposition coalition, the
National Council of Resistance of Iran, said via satellite link-up,
"The terrorist label against the Iranian Resistance is not
only a move against an opposition movement. It is capitulation
to the dictates of the ayatollahs and a barrier to change in Iran."
Rejecting
both appeasement and military intervention, Mrs. Rajavi called
for support for democratic change by the Iranian people and the
Iranian resistance movement.
With
the law on the side of the resistance, we must stand by the Iranian
people in their struggle against the religious tyranny. On 15
March, millions of young Iranians heeded the PMOI's call to turn
the traditional end-of-Persian-year fire festival into a national
protest against mullahs' tyranny. These young Iranians need the
support and encouragement of freedom-loving people around the
world. By blacklisting their resistance movement, we are sending
them the opposite signal.
The terrorist tag must be hung around the neck of the real terrorists,
the mullahs who rule Iran, not their victims. The symposium in
London was part of a growing campaign to undo this injustice.
Appeasement must end and the PMOI removed from the terror list
to signal support for democratic change by the Iranian people
and their legitimate representative, the National Council of Resistance
of Iran.
Lord
Corbett of Castle Vale
Rt. Hon. The Lord Slynn of Hadley, QC
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West's backing of mullahs has failed Iran
Platform
Maryam
Rajavi
PARIS
- 9 July - By boycotting the presidential election sham last month,
the Iranian people overwhelmingly rejected the clerical regime.
Widespread reports of rigging and fraud from international journalists
pointed out that less than 10 percent of eligible voters took part.
With
a hostage-taker, murderer and terrorist coming out of the ballot
box as the mullahs' president, it is evident that Tehran regime
is so week that could not tolerate even pretence of "moderation"
and the rival factions. This explains why it had to consolidate
power in the hands of its most extremist faction. Purging Ali Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani, who held the most senior positions within the
regime, has made the regime much more fragile.
The
clerical regime's social base of support has never been so thin.
But the mullahs did not have many options. Rafsanjani's presidency
would not have resolved any of the acute crises it is facing. It
would have only expedited its disintegration.
This
is a turning point, and the beginning of the final phase of the
clerical rule. Ayatollah Khamenei has done away with all pretences.
The practical message is more crackdowns, greater pursuit of nuclear
weapons, and increased meddling in Iraq and elsewhere
For
Tehran's apologists in Europe, who for years tried to justify a
policy of appeasement under the veneer of helping "moderates"
against the "radicals" within the clerical rule, it was
a scandal. This was the final nail in the coffin of hope for change
from within the clerical establishment. The point the Iranian resistance
has reiterated for the past two decades.
The
policy of appeasement only emboldened the mullahs in their oppression
of the Iranian people, their bid to acquire nuclear weapons, and
their export of Islamic fundamentalism.
This
is the time for a new policy on Iran. Iranian people want change.
Over the years, however, the West has actually retarded the realization
of the Iranian people's desire for change by supporting the clerical
regime and by exerting pressure on the Iranian resistance movement.
The
Iranian people are the genuine force of change in Iran. They want
their right to resist the mullahs to be recognized. They know that
their destiny rests in their own hands.
While
120,000 individuals have been executed for their support for human
rights and democracy, oppressing one generation of Iranians failed
to extinguish the Iranian people's yearning for democracy.
An
independent and secular Iran, which would guarantee a free market
economy, a free press, economic prosperity, and gender equality,
is within reach. The resistance could be the force to bring peace
and stability to the region and the world, and eliminate the threat
of war, terrorism, and fundamentalism that mullahs advocate.
All
it requires is impartiality by Western countries and removing the
restrictions that the West in complicity with the clerics has imposed
on the resistance movement by the terrorist badge. The West now
has a historic opportunity to take the moral high ground and stand
on their side.
Maryam
Rajavi is president-elect of the National Council of Resistance
of Iran.
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