Iran Opposition Leader Urges EU to Put Human Rights Front and Center in Dealing with Tehran

BRUSSELS, April 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi urged the international community and the EU to put human rights front and center in their dealings with the Tehran regime.

Rajavi, who heads the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran made the call during a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday.

Scores of senior members of the European Parliament from different political groups including Alejo Vidal -Quadras, a Vice President of the Parliament, Struan Stevenson, President of European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Iraq, and Michelle Alliot-Marie, France's former defense and foreign minister addressed the meeting.

The meeting in Brussels coincided with another round of nuclear talks between Iran and P5+1 held in Vienna.

Rajavi said: "Human rights is the mullahs' Achilles' heel. Tehran's hysterical reaction to European Parliament resolution censuring human rights abuses in Iran and cancellation of the planned trip of the delegation of mullahs' parliament to Europe, are vivid indications of mullahs' weakness and the myth of change in Iran."

Tehran summoned the Greek Ambassador, the sitting of EU rotating president, and cancelled a trip by a delegation of Iranian regime's parliamentarians to Europe. 

Members of European Parliament rejected the Rouhani's moderate posturing and criticized Western inaction regarding the growing number of executions and suppression in Iran as well as the regime's direct role in the bloodbaths in Syria and Iraq.

Stevenson said: "I would like to tell the mullahs: You cannot export your rule of fear and censorship to here. We, who have been sent here by our people's vote, decide what to say, who to listen to and who to ignore. That is why we have invited Mrs. Rajavi, to tell us about a different Iran; a democratic and free Iran."

"Western countries must insist on shutting down nuclear sites and stopping uranium enrichment," Rajavi underscored, adding, "any concession or appeasement by the West will enable the mullahs to obtain the bomb."

Rajavi also warned of the threats facing 3,000 Iranian dissidents in Iraq. She urged EP to compel the EU to use its leverage to free the seven Iranian dissidents taken hostage in Iraq, resettle PMOI/MEK members in Europe and US, and ensure the safety and security of the residents while still at Liberty by stationing UN observers at Liberty on a permanent basis. She also called for the launching of an independent investigation into the September 1 massacre at Ashraf.

SOURCE Iran News Update

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