By Staff Writer
At the Free Iran Gathering in Paris in late June, former Italian foreign minister Giulio Terzi spoke about why the European community should support the Iranian people’s desire for regime change and end the dangerous policy of appeasement towards the mullahs.
Terzi explained that European appeasement of the Iranian regime is based on the “false assumption” and “dangerous narrative” that the Presidency of Hassan Rouhani is a moderate one, which works in the favour of the West and the Iranian people.
He that we could tell this assumption was “completely wrong” because Rouhani is not a moderate – roughly 4,000 have been executed since he became president, 8,000 were arrested for protesting the Regime in January 2018 alone, and he called for foreign governments to attack the Iranian opposition. We also know that Rouhani, despite all of his promises, does not have the ability to change things in Iran. The ultimate power in Iran lies solely with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Terzi said: “[The Regime] has not changed in its fundamentals and in general messianic vision of bringing the Shias ahead of all the Muslim world and dominating the region.”
That’s why Terzi advised Europe to follow the US’s lead and begin to tackle the Regime’s many problems. He advised that Europe ramp on pressure on the mullahs by making their relations with the Regime conditional on improvements to human rights.
He said that some European politicians were already trying to tackle Iran, like the Italian Senators that tried to amend a finance bill for Italian companies investing in Iran to include references to European regulations against the financing of terrorism, which is how the Regime spends their money, but these lawmakers are too often shut down.
Terzi said: “[The Iranian market is] a trap full of risk. It was already in the past even before the Trump administration took power in Washington, but now it’s very evident that there are enormous risks for European companies and Italian companies, for instance, even major companies, are already suffering for the wrong decisions which were pushed to take by the [government].”
Terzi then explained that the Iranian regime is in a decidedly fragile place and are using “unacceptable tricks” to try to divide the Iranian people who are standing up against the mullahs in their nationwide protest that spread across 142 cities in January and is continuing despite a violent crackdown on protesters.