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NCRI Staff<\/p>\n
NCRI –\u00a0Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif recently wrote a threatening op-ed for the New York Times, warning European countries not to put pressure on Iran regarding its ballistic missile programme or support for terrorism and blaming the US for problems caused by the Regime.<\/p>\n
He cautioned: \u201cAs the nuclear deal and the Middle East enter uncharted and potentially combustible territory, it is imperative that Europe helps ensure that we don\u2019t soon find ourselves repeating history.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one way- and I stress in only one way- he is right. Repeating the mistakes of history is dangerous, but not the \u2018mistakes\u2019 that Zarif would have you believe.<\/p>\n
Europe- and to various extents the rest of the world- have previously given the Iranian Regime undeserved leniency which led the ruling mullahs to believe that they were immune to criticism and could become even more brutal in the pursuit of their destructive goals.<\/p>\n
Most recently, this can be seen in the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which removed economic sanctions on the Regime in exchange for limited restrictions on its nuclear programme.<\/p>\n
Ths meant that the Iranian Regime benefitted from billions of dollars in trade agreements with Europe.<\/p>\n
That was a mistake for the world.<\/p>\n
The Iranian Regime has exploited loopholes in the nuclear deal so that it can continue to fund its malign activities in the Middle East and around the world.<\/p>\n
Also, as the Regime\u2019s violent Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which is sanctioned as a terrorist group by the US, controls most of the Iranian economy, Europe is effectively doing business with a terrorist group.<\/p>\n
How can Europe take a stance against Iran\u2019s terrorist behaviour and human rights violations when they are tacitly supporting it?<\/p>\n
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi recently told the European Parliament: \u201cSigning economic contracts with Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards, which controls the greater part of Iran\u2019s economic sector, is a shortsighted policy that will endanger peace and stability even further.\u201d<\/p>\n
She stressed that the Regime was taking advantage of Europe\u2019s collaboration for its own dangerous objectives; domestic repression and destabilising regional behaviour.<\/p>\n
While the US has now taken a tough stance against the threat posed Iranian Regime, European countries have not and the Iranian Regime is taking advantage of the situation to divide the international community.<\/p>\n