As a newly elected Member of the European Parliament, I’m very proud to be with you today. I’m appalled that our governments are holding talks with the Iranian regime while remaining virtually silent that that same regime targets its opponents and has murdered them in such brutal ways, and our silence has sadly allowed the regime to commit more human rights abuses under the cover of these talks.
I want to say very clearly that we should not be making our position on human rights conditional on nuclear talks or on any other topics. Human rights are human rights, and there can be no exception.
While remembering those being killed, I must say a word about what’s going on today in Camp Liberty and I know you’re watching us. It’s totally unacceptable for the international community to abandon those in Camp Liberty. The treatment of the residents of Camp Liberty should be the benchmark of measuring the regime’s behavior and the Iraqi government. I respect the Iranian people’s desire for a fundamental change of regime. This regime will not reform itself as long as it ruled by a constitution that gives absolute power to so-called supreme clergy. And I’m very glad therefore to stand side by side with what is truly a democratic alternative and a democratic alternative led by women.
You Madame Rajavi, and all of you in this room, are giving the chance to the international community to adopt a decent position on Iran by standing firm against tyranny and support the National Council of Resistance of Iran for a democratic and secular government. I’d like to finish by saying my home region, the northeast of England, has a proud tradition of internationalism and support the struggle for justice elsewhere in the world. We supported those fighting for justice in the Spanish Civil War, to the anti-apartheid movement and through the Civil Rights movement. In fact, Newcastle upon tide of northeastern England was the only city outside the USA in which Martin Luther King was recognized in his own lifetime.
So I’d like to end today by quoting that great man when he said that the arc of history bends towards justice. And I quote that by promising you that I’ll do my very best efforts in the European Parliament together with Julie and the other Friends of a Free Iran to make the arc of history bend quicker for those massacred in 1988 and last year in the struggle for a free and democratic Iran. I stand in solidarity with you today, I stand as a sister of Ashraf.