In a recent session held at the European Parliament at the initiative of Friends of a Free Iran Committee, Jan Zahradil , Vice-Chair of European Conservatives and Reformists Group, European Parliament delivered a speech stressing.

Jan Zahradil , Vice-Chair of European Conservatives and Reformists Group, European Parliament

I just wanted to say a few things that I think it is worth being repeatedly mentioned. First of all I was extremely happy when it came to the delisting of PMOI and the National Council of Resistance by the US administration. It came almost three and a half years after the EU delisting happened fortunately happened the EU presidency by my country and I was quite happy that this process had culminated during 2012 and this delisting by the US administration opened new ways and new possibilities by the organization. There were other things that did not make me happy at all with camp Ashraf and Liberty but I don’t want to repeat them at all because they had been mentioned many times before only one thing I would like to draw your attention to was a remark made this morning during the Sakharov prize ceremony a remark made by a proxy of Mrs. Sotoudeh and mentioned the developments in Syria briefly that this is the Iranian regime which never gave up any effort to spread its influence in the regent as far as possible it is present in Iraq it is present in Lebanon it is present in Syria and is trying to spread further and further. Partly what is going on in Syria it is also a fight over influence whether the Iranian regime will once again be able to widen its scope of activities and I think we should be aware of that particularly us in the European Parliament who are in the Foreign Affairs committee and should not allow this to happen this is another reason we should be very active against Ms. Ashton and the whole External Service and that is also the reason why we should stick with the PMOI and the National Council of Iran because so far it has been the best organized exile opposition movement ever and I think we should let the international community know that because the Iranian propaganda trying to spread rumors to portray this exiled Iranian opposition with the most possible fashion and we have to find a way out of it and how to describe things in real terms and how to help our friends to get the international recognition they deserve. US administration delisting was a very important step but definitely must not be the last step and we must continue in 2013 and in upcoming years to achieve all our goals with the main goal being a free Iran.