PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 27thJuly 2017
KEY IRANIAN GOVERNMENT FIGURES EXPOSED AS MURDERERS
In a keynote speech to members of the Iranian Liberty Association in Lambeth, Struan Stevenson, an international expert on the Middle East and former Conservative MEP said:
“In 1988, 30,000 political prisoners mostly from the People’s Mojahedin of Iran, who are the main democratic opposition to the theocratic mullah regime, were massacred on the direct orders of Ayatollah Khomenei, the founder of the Islamic Republic. The current Justice Minister of President Rouhani’s government was one of the key executioners in Tehran during the 1988 massacre and now he says he is proud to have killed so many PMOI members. The other key murderer in charge of the 1988 slaughter was Ebrahim Raisi, the black-turbaned mullah who the current Supreme Leader - Ayatollah Khamenei - is cultivating as a future successor, ready to take over from him when he dies. It is incredible that we in the West believe it is acceptable to have so-called ‘constructive dialogue’ with murderers and butchers like this, who remain in powerful positions in the leadership of Iran today. These people must be indicted for crimes against humanity and brought to justice before the international court in The Hague.”
Mr Stevenson continued:
“The Iranian regime plays a destructive role in the Middle East and the systematic violation of human rights across the zone characterizes their aggressive attempts to spread Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force (IRGC) and the body responsible for extra-territorial operations - the terrorist Quds Force, are the main vehicles for Iran’s aggressive expansionism in the Middle East. The IRGC has for decades been carrying out terrorist attacks across the zone, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
“I was delighted to see that on Tuesday 25thJuly,the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly (419-3) in favour of imposing newsanctions on the Iranian regime, including the blacklisting of the IRGC. These sanctions must now be approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Trump and I’m sure they will be. The listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation will have a massive impact on the mullah’s regime, as it controls around 70% of the Iranian economy. This is another huge victory and is something we have fought for over many years.
“Over the past six years the world has witnessed in horror how the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has massacred his own people, even using chemical weapons like Sarin gas to murder innocent men, women and children, while enjoying unlimited financial and military support from Iranand air cover from the Russians.The IRGC finances, arms and leads most of the brutal Shi’ite militias rampaging through the predominantly Sunni provinces of Iraq,massacring families and levelling ancient cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul in the name of the war against Daesh (ISIS). The Iranian regime's violence and crimes in other countries in the region and in particular its suppression of the Sunnis, carried out under the banner of fundamentalist Shi’ite Islam, is what provoked the original backlash that in turn spawned the birth of groups like Daesh who seek to establish an “Islamic Caliphate” while spreading their violence, brutality and hate to the four corners of the globe.
“Iran cannot be part of the solution to the conflicts raging in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. It is part of the problem. Iran exports terror. This is the real Iran under the theocratic and fascist rule of the mullahs, whose so-called ‘moderate’ president Rouhani the West believes it can do deals with. We should wake up! The ‘smiling’, Rouhani is in charge of a venally corrupt government, which has executed over 3500 people since he took office in 2013 and which is behind every conflict in the Middle East.
“The easiest way for the American government to signal a new, tough strategy for dealing with the mullahs would be for President Trump to invite Mrs Maryam Rajavi, leader of the main democratic opposition, to Washington. That would shake the turbaned tyrants in Tehran to the core! Mrs Rajavi is the outstanding symbol of anti-fundamentalism and her manifesto for freedom, justice, human rights, women’s rights, an end to torture and the death penalty and an end to the nuclear threat, is something that we should all unite around internationally. I strongly recommend that the West should be entering into dialogue with the political coalition that is the NCRI, rather than pussyfooting around with the mullahs in Tehran.”
Note: Struan Stevenson is President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA). He was a Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland from 1999 to 2014. He was President of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009- 2014) and Chair of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (Caucus) from 2004-2014.
