Toby Perkins, MP, addressed an online event on October 15, 2020, on the Iranian regime’s terrorism and how it undermines global security.

The event, hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Members of Parliament of the U.K. and Irish politicians joined the online conference. Also, many Iranians supporters of the MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)from various countries participated in the event. They focused on the fact that the Iran’s regime is a critical threat to global security, which is especially true considering the mullahs’ terror plots in Europe.

The event came in the wake of new threats by the regime’s incarcerated diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi. Assadi, who arrested following the regime’s foiled bomb plot against the NCRI’s “Free Iran” gathering in 2018 in Paris, threatened Belgian authorities with attacks by the mullahs’ proxy groups if he is found guilty.

The foiled bomb plot in 2018 and Assadi’s threats once again underline the need for European countries to take firm action against the mullahs’ regime.

Toby Perkins, MP, in the Iranian opposition NCRI online conference—October 15, 2020

Thank you very much indeed and thank you also for your inspirational speech at the start of this contribution, which I think set the tone very well. And like you, I was inspired and hope people across Iran also will be inspired by the words we heard from Maryam Rajavi earlier. she should know that she has many, many admirers in the United Kingdom, who wants to see her here speaking to us in the United Kingdom, and also look forward to the day when she will be able to walk freely and lead the people of Iran. I send my solidarity to everyone watching this event across around and displaced Iranians around the world living in exile who desperately hope that one day they will be able to walk freely down the streets in Tehran. 

And just this week, I raised with the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, the case of the overall torture and human rights abuses of the Iranian regime, and specifically the execution of Navid Afkari, who was forced to confess to torture to the murder of an IRGC official during the protests in 2008, and he was despite the opposition of decent people across the world executed recently. 

The Iranian regime has historically used terrorist attacks and assassination against Iranian dissidents in Europe and killed members of the NCRI in Switzerland and Italy, and in Turkey. The terrorism against the Iranian resistance is the other side of the regime’s internal repression and aims to eliminate any credible and democratic opposition to this regime. In the summer of 2018. We know the regime of Iran attempted to bomb the gathering of NCRI in Paris, which was held in support of a free and democratic Iran. And the bombing plot came as a new wave of popular protests erupted across around, which the regime said the Iranian resistance organized for and planned in months. 

The regime in Iran targets the Iranian resistance, because Maryam Rajavi, as a democratic platform for the future around, which is gaining increasing support and recognition in Iran and internationally and because the NCRI is playing a crucial role in exposing the regime’s human rights violations, the terrorist activities, and their illicit nuclear program. The bombing plot in Paris was foiled and after close cooperation between security agencies and police across France, Germany and Belgium. This shows that there must be a coordinated European response based on firmness to counter the regime’s terrorism. 

I agree with what’s already been said by Theresa Villiers and others that necessary steps in this regard is to designate Iran’s regime leaders and institutions like the IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist organizations. But the UK Government must abandon a policy of appeasement, where policy of maximum pressure and firmness that recognizes and supports the democratic alternative, presented by the NCRI and backs the democratic aspirations of Iranian people for change. 

I urged Dominic Raab, just this week, to increase the pressure and to increase the condemnation of the UK Government for the role of Iran in human rights abuses within Iran but also for the malicious and malignant role that it plays across the wider Middle East. And so, in ending this message, I send my solidarity to all the people of Iran, and my thanks to all those who continue to fight.