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European Parliamentarians and jurists urge EU to recognize Iranian Resistance

Shahriar Kia - 1/28/2009

Dozens of Parliamentarians from EU national parliaments and the European Parliament as well as jurists and human rights activists urged the European Union on Tuesday to recognize the Iranian Resistance. The announcement was made at a press conference in Brussels organized by the European committee "In Search of Justice" (ISJ), which represents some 2,000 Parliamentarians from all member states of the 27-nation bloc.

Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadra, Vice-President of the European Parliament and President of ISJ, reiterated that, following the removal of the terrorist label from the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), the time has come for the EU to recognize the Iranian Resistance and give it political backing. He said that the mullahs' regime should be included on the terrorist list and subjected to comprehensive sanctions.

The keynote speaker, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, said that with the de-listing of the PMOI, the core of Europe's policy of appeasement was crushed and the strategic investment by the mullahs' regime to destroy the Iranian Resistance was lost.

Mrs. Rajavi said the terrorist label was the greatest contributor to prolonging the rule of the religious fascism in Iran. Thus, it took a seven-year-long legal and political battle, including some 50 major demonstrations, 800 sit-ins and rallies and 21 expert legal opinions by preeminent European jurists, to have it removed.

From today the winds of change will blow with greater momentum for democratic change in Iran, she said.

Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that after seven court rulings in Europe and the removal of the PMOI from the terrorist lists of the UK and EU, the inclusion of the PMOI on the blacklist of the US State Department is unjustified more than ever. The most important element of change in the policy of the US and the new President toward Iran should be to abandon the policy of appeasement of the mullahs and remove the terror label from the PMOI.

The participants at the conference pointed to the frantic reaction of the regime, which in recent weeks did not refrain from any political and diplomatic pressures or even threats and plots to prevent the de-listing of the PMOI. The participants reiterated that this reaction is the best telling sign of the popularity and social base of the PMOI and its ability to bring about democratic change in Iran.

The conference participants included: Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament from Spain; Struan Stevenson MEP, Vice-President of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament; Rt. Hon. Lord Archer of Sandwell QC, former Solicitor-General of the UK; Heidi Hautala, Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Finnish Parliament; Jens Christian Lund, Member of Parliament from Denmark; Jan Zahradil MEP, head of the EPP-ED delegation to the European Parliament from the Czech Republic; Janusz Onyszkiewicz MEP, Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament; Senators Margriet Hermans and Dirk Claes from Belgium; Souad Sbai, Italian MP; Jean-Pierre Brard, French MP; Prof. Henk De Haan, former Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Dutch Parliament; David Kilgour, former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific; Jean-Pierre Spitzer, the PMOI's lawyer at the European Court; William Bourdon, prominent French human rights lawyer; Alain Vivien, former French minister; and Francois Colcombet, former judge and French MP.

Simultaneously, 15,000 Iranians from across Europe rallied in Brussels in support of the Iranian Resistance and Mrs. Rajavi's call for democratic change by the Iranian people and Resistance.

While chanting slogans in support of the PMOI, the protestors demanded that the EU recognizes the Iranian Resistance which strives to establish a democratic and secular state.