Monday, 4th February 2008
EU taxpayers pay for Iranian students
Dear Sir,
Last week External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Walder told the European Parliament, during a debate on Iran, that EU taxpayers are paying for Iranian students and academics to undertake courses in European universities and at the same time paying for a poverty alleviation programme in Iran. It seems incredible that we are training Iranian nuclear physicists, from a country whose leader President Ahmadinejad wants to “wipe Israel off the map” and will soon have the weapons to do so. It is also beyond belief that we are paying for poverty relief in one of the world's richest oil producing countries, because the ruling mullahs have corruptly stolen money from their own people and squandered billions of dollars developing nuclear weapons. It is so far fetched that you really couldn’t make it up! Sadly it is symptomatic of the European policy on Iran which can be spelled out in one word – APPEASEMENT.
Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner and Javier Solana, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, stressed repeatedly in their speeches to Parliament the need for dialogue, negotiation and persuasion when dealing with the mullahs in Tehran, although Solana admitted that this policy had so far me with “no success.” “The Iranian regime ignores us” he said!
This is certainly true. The more the EU demands that Iran respects basic human rights, the more executions the regime carries out. 23 people were executed in the first two weeks of this year, including several women. Five people had their hands and feet amputated. Men and women are regularly stoned to death. Children and pregnant women have been executed. This is the response to our appeasement policy from the jihadist, misogynist, homophobic, genocidal, brutal regime in Iran, which is the world's leading sponsor of terror.
Instead of training Iranian students in the EU we should be supporting the brave students of Tehran University who have demonstrated, for the past five days, at great risk to their own lives, demanding regime change. Instead of backing appeasement, we should back the legitimate Iranian opposition. Instead of keeping the People’s Mojahedin of Iran on the EU terror list, we should put the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and their Qods (Jerusalem) Force on the EU terror list.
Yours sincerely,
STRUAN STEVENSON, MEP
