Maryam Rajavi calls on EU FMs not to link comprehensive sanctions against Iranian regime to Security Council decision; Place the IRGC and its affiliated institutions on the terrorist list and impose comprehensive sanctions against them
Democracy in Iran, peace in the region and prevention of the clerical regime from obtaining nuclear weapons all depend on change in Iran
NCRI – On the eve of the European Union foreign ministers meeting, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, called on Baroness Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the 27 European foreign ministers to avoid making comprehensive sanctions against the religious fascism ruling Iran conditional on a UN Security Council decision.
Mrs. Rajavi called on them to make the continuation of economic and diplomatic ties with the clerical regime contingent on cessation of suppression and killings and improvement of the human rights situation in Iran. She also urged the FM meeting to place the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and all of its affiliated institutions and companies, which dominate a large portion of the Iranian economy, on the terrorist list and to impose complete sanctions against them. She added that while the EU has become one of the main trade partners of the ruling regime, the mullahs, contrary to their empty propaganda, cannot find an alternative to European countries for trade.
Mrs. Rajavi also demanded the referral of the dossier on violation of human rights in Iran to the UN Security Council as well as efforts to be made to get political prisoners and detainees of the uprising of recent months released.
The President-elect of the Iranian Resistance stressed that the recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rings alarm bells for the international community, and the first urgent and imperative step to prevent the mullahs from obtaining a nuclear weapon is to impose comprehensive arms, oil, technological and diplomatic sanctions against them. That being said, since the clerical regime views the acquiring of nuclear weapons essential to its survival and will never abandon it, the ultimate option remains to be democratic change in Iran by the people and the Iranian Resistance.
She added that democratic change is both demanded by the Iranian people and a necessity for the international community, since the three fundamental issues of democracy and human rights in Iran; security, peace and tranquility in the region and prevention of a fundamentalist regime from obtaining a nuclear bomb, would be resolved by one and only one option, namely changing the medieval regime by the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance.
The nationwide uprising of the Iranian people in recent months with the chants of “death to Khamenei,” “death to dictator,” and “down with the principle of velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule)” demonstrated that the Iranian people seek the overthrow of the regime in its entirety. The rifts at the apex of the regime’s hierarchy and its internal crises will continue to deepen perpetually while the people’s rage toward the regime will continue to grow. In short, all the evidence indicates that change is within reach.
Mrs. Rajavi welcomed Ms. Ashton’s positions, especially her condemnation of the regime’s suppression of the February 11th uprising and “violent crackdowns on those calling for the fundamental right to freedom of expression and assembly,” and her statement that the Iranian people “deserve better.” Mrs. Rajavi said that the neutrality of foreign powers, which implies their lack of aid to the regime in political and economic spheres and removal of the obstacles placed on the path of the Resistance such as the terrorist label at the behest of the ruling mullahs, will serve to accelerate change in Iran.
Mrs. Rajavi stressed that in the midst of the people’s uprising, the clerical regime has focused its attention on eliminating Camp Ashraf, the residence of members of the organized opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI). She called on the EU to take steps to ensure that the UN will undertake the responsibility to protect Ashraf.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 22, 2010