The National – Feb. 13, 2016 – MORE than 200 MPs and peers – including over 20 SNP members – have called on the UK Government to strengthen its policy on Iran, and make any improvement in relations conditional on the country ending human rights abuses.
A nine-strong cross-party delegation was in Paris yesterday and met senior members of the Iranian opposition in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), including its President elect Maryam Rajavi.
Former Welsh Secretary David Jones, who led the delegation, said: “The meeting and the policy recommendations come as Iran’s regime has faced scrutiny by United Nations bodies over its abysmal human rights record and exactly two weeks before Iran’s Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts sham elections, where candidates are strictly filtered and unrepresentative of the people’s desires.
“Iran has the highest per capita execution rate in the world. Political suppression has intensified over the past two years under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani. Iran continues with its destructive meddling in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.”
Jones said they shared Rajavi’s view that little had changed after the West lifted its sanctions on Iran.
She told the gathering: “Some apologists claimed that after the nuclear agreement, the Iranian regime would move towards moderation.
“Yet, we can see that the situation is otherwise. Human rights abuses in Iran have worsened after the nuclear deal, as has the mullahs’ meddling and aggression in Syria.”
She added that the theocracy of the mullahs was a source of inspiration for two basic tendencies – extremism under the banner of Islam and retaliation against the West.
“The outcome of these two tendencies are terrorist attacks in Europe,” she said.
“The Iranian regime continues to repress the people domestically and export terror in the region. It has dispatched Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commanders and foreign mercenaries to fight for Bashar Assad in Syria.
“The NCRI is the legitimate opposition to this regime.
“Our Government, along with our Western allies, has pursued a conciliatory policy toward Iran, hoping that would encourage the Iranian regime to change its behavior. In this respect the Iranian opposition and the desire of the Iranian people for change were ignored. It is time to abandon that misguided approach.”
The cross-parliamentary group urged the UK Government to ensure that human rights were a central factor in its relations with Iran.
“We must make it clear to the rulers of Iran that their behavior towards their own people is unacceptable,” they wrote. “We must not turn a blind eye to the grave violations of human rights in Iran.”
They said Iran remained the source of instability in the Middle East and the UK “should support our allies in the region to stand up against Iran’s growing meddling”.
The group said the Government had to engage with the NCRI, and that they supported the 10-point plan put forward by Rajavi, which called for “a democratic and non-nuclear Iran with separation of religion and state, gender equality and elimination of all religious and ethnic discrimination”.
Martyn Day, the MP for Linlithgow and Falkirk East told The National: “I think the UK Government should be putting more pressure on the Iranian Government over human rights issues. They’ve already taken the line that they’re against the death penalty, which I agree with, but they should be arguing that more vocally.”