There is one thing that never ceases to amaze me after 15 years as a Member of the European Parliament and that is the weakness of the West when it comes to dealing with Iran. The fascist government in Tehran is one of the most evil regimes in the world today, abusing human rights and using repression, torture and a spiralling increase in executions to terrorise and subjugate the people. These are typical and commonplace signs of a dangerous and cornered authoritarian regime.

Scottish Conservative Euro MP and longtime animal welfare campaigner Struan Stevenson has hit out against the “breath-taking” hypocrisy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that while the strongman portrays himself as an animal lover, he is turning a blind eye to a brutal cull of thousands of stray dogs in Sochi on the eve of the Winter Olympics.

Last November I visited Kurdistan in Northern Iraq to see for myself the refugee camps they have set up to provide shelter for over 230,000 men, women and children fleeing from the bloody civil war in Syria.

Struan discusses the appalling desecration of the landscape around the Gleneagles golf resort.

This month, Struan reflects on January's parliamentary whirlwind, criticises the Scottish Government's assault on Scotland's golf courses, warns that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki is ramping up his reign of terror in the country and pays tribute to the great chieftan o' the puddin'-race at his annual charity Burns Supper.

The following speech was given to a conference entitled 'Water and Energy as Instruments for Peace' in Brussels and organised by the parliament's Intergroup on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development on 28 January 2014.

Ladies & Gentlemen,

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has today been accused of a genocidal campaign against the Sunni population by senior Euro MP Struan Stevenson.  

Mr Stevenson, a Scottish Conservative MEP and Chair of the powerful Delegation for Relations with Iraq, said that the massive Iraqi military assault on Fallujah and Ramadi in al-Anbar Province is the latest phase in Nouri al-Maliki's campaign to eliminate all opposition to his regime prior to the elections on 30th April.