Jaak Madison, MEP from Estonia and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, addressed a webinar by European lawmakers on October 7, 2020, on the human rights situation in Iran.

Online Conference held under title, “Iran’s Ongoing Crimes Against Humanity, EU’s political and moral obligations”. The online event was on October 7, 2020. Dozens of members of the European Parliament attended and spoke at the conference.

MEPs made their remarks in order to condemn the horrific human rights violations witnessed on a daily basis across Iran. In addition, MEPs called on the European Union to fulfill its moral and political obligations in the face of human rights violations in Iran. They called for a firm policy by the European Union against the mullah regime in Iran. Also, they pointed out, It is high time to stand alongside the Iranian people and support their justified aspirations for a free, democratic, and non-nuclear Iran.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI), was the keynote speaker at this conference. Her message welcomed as a democratic solution to Iran’s future. Mrs. Rajavi’s ten-point plan has widespread support from the majority of MEPs for a long time.

Jaak Madison, MEP from Estonia

Thank you very much for inviting me to this meeting on Iran. It’s a very important issue. We hear executions continue in Iran.

We cannot accept this. We also seen how the regime has launched a brutal crackdown against popular protest demanding change and freedom, which take place frequently in Iran since 2018.

We hear their demand to get rid of this corrupt regime, but what is the EU really doing to help them? We cannot continue business as usual with such as state to such a regime where we know they are killing anyone who expresses discontent or opposition. This is not the EU. The EU should say you either end this barbaric treatment or we don’t have anything to do with you.

We have today evidence that Iran state terrorist has reached European soil. One Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, is to be prosecuted next month in Belgium for his involvement in the bombing of the gathering of Iran’s pro-democracy opposition in Paris on June 2018. We also know about other activities in other European countries. Assadi was put in the EU terror list just recently, but that is not enough. We need to ensure that the regime does not continue such harmful activities on European soil.

This is the direct result of the policy of appeasement and sanction relief pursued by the EU, which culminated in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that essentially left Europe paralyzed in the face of Iran’s growing destabilizing activities, terrorism and domestic repression.

So the time has come for the EU and its member states to revise and alter this appeasement policy in favor of a firm policy toward Iran, because like any other dictator in the history, Iran’s regime only understands the language of firmness. This firm policy should hold the regime to account for its terrorism in Europe and domestic repression through sanctions and downgrading diplomatic relations.

The EU must even consider closing Iran’s embassies, because the regime is using its diplomatic missions to carry out espionage and terrorist plots against Iranian dissidents and activists in a state-sanctioned effort to silence all opposition no matter where they are as popular protests against the regime grow across Iran.