Maryam Rajavi: No Such Thing as Human Rights in Iran

BRUSSELS, December 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

At least 1200 executions during Rouhani's presidency so far 

On Wednesday, Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said that the number of executions in Iran during President Hassan Rouhani's first year in office was more than any other year in the past quarter century.

Rajavi was addressing a major conference at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels on December 10, on the occasion of the International Day of Human Rights.

She detailed various aspects of the human rights situation in Iran that have deteriorated during Rouhani's tenure and said: "There is no such thing as human rights in Iran…The mullahs' constitution; the penal code; the civil code; the laws adopted by the regime's parliament are all based on the violation of human rights."  

Dozens of members of the European Parliament, including senior members from various political groups and various countries addressed the conference.  In addition to addressing Iran's human rights record under Rouhani, the speakers discussed the deadlock in the EU3+3 nuclear talks with Iran and the prospects for a mutually acceptable deal.

While condemning the egregious human rights violations in Iran by the clerical regime, the speakers urged the EU and in particular Ms. Federica Mogherini, the new EU  foreign policy chief to urgently adopt specific steps to address the growing human rights crisis in Iran.

Gerard Deprez, MEP, Chair of Friends of a Free Iran Committee at the European Parliament, Eduard Kukan, MEP, Former Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Mairead McGinnes, Vice President of European Parliament from Ireland, Jose Bove, MEP from France, Patrizia Toia, leader of Italian delegation in the Socialists and Democrats Group at the European Parliament, Tunne Kelam, MEP from Estonia, and Julie Ward, MEP from the UK and Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, President of International Committee In Search of Justice and former Vice-President of the European Parliament were among the speakers of the conference.

Gov. Howard Dean, former US Presidential candidate and former Democratic Party Chairman travelled to Brussels to address the event.

Regarding the nuclear talks, Mrs. Rajavi said that in order to stop Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear bomb, the West needs to show resolve.  She explained that with 12 million people going hungry throughout the country, this program has no legitimacy for the Iranian people. They do not want this program to continue.

She emphasized that Iranian society is deeply discontented and on the verge of another uprising, and she scolded the Western countries for offering unwarranted concessions to the ayatollahs in the talks and for remaining silent regarding the tragedy of domestic suppression in Iran.

 "The nuclear talks with the mullahs in the past year continued in parallel with the rise in executions in Iran," she said. "To ensure the success of the talks, Europe and the United States not only remained silent vis-à-vis the human rights tragedy in Iran; they also offered further unjustified concessions to the regime. Despite all these, the negotiations failed and left the world living in fear of a barbaric fundamentalist regime obtaining a nuclear bomb."

According to Rajavi, "This regime has no capacity to accept a deal which would guarantee abandoning the nuclear bomb. The regime is facing an impasse. It wants to end the international sanctions but at the same time it fears the consequences of abandoning its means of survival… Now is the time to intensify the pressure on the regime. The mullahs agreed to negotiate due to mounting pressure. They stalled on signing an agreement due to concessions. The only way forward is more pressure and more sanctions."

The Iranian opposition leader warned, "There is no light at the end of the tunnel of marathon of talks. There is a nuclear bomb at the end of the tunnel."

Rajavi pointed to the increase in the frequency of atrocities by the fundamentalists in Syria and Iraq and asked why the West would not confront a regime that is the "godfather of ISIS" and has a record a hundred times worse. She condemned the silence of European states regarding the suppression by this regime and the accommodation of the mullahs' lobbies and warned that cooperation with the Iranian regime under the pretense of fighting ISIS is not a solution but a prescription for catastrophe.

Rajavi expressed her abhorrence for the continuation of the six-year siege against Iranian dissidents, members of the principal Iranian opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)  in Iraq and called on the European Union to "change its policy with respect to the savage tyranny ruling Iran and to show resolve."