MARYAM RAJAVI: HOW TO STOP IRANIAN TERRORISM

As we have seen time and time again over the course of this year – and to be honest the past 40 years – the Iranian Regime has tried to attack the Iranian Resistance using terrorist groups and shadowy murder plots. This should frighten anyone with a commitment to human rights and especially freedom of expression, but how can the West – or indeed, the world at large – target the Iranian Regime and hold them accountable for their crimes?

Well, luckily, Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, has a simple plan; one that she laid out for the world in a video message to the Brussels-based conference “Iran’s New Wave of Terrorism – The EU and US responses” in October.

Maryam Rajavi says that the only way to effectively counter the mullahs’ terrorism is to stand firm against the Iranian Regime, rather than being compelled into “silence and surrender”.

Maryam Rajavi said: “The mullahs have repeatedly announced that they can achieve victory through terror. As a result, imposing silence on western governments has been a significant achievement for them. Remaining silent vis-à-vis terrorism is the most damaging form of appeasement of the mullahs’ theocratic regime. Unfortunately, this is currently the prevalent policy in Europe. This is a mistake which costs not only the security of Iranian people but the security of Europe.”

Maryam Rajavi explained that the Iranian Regime is “highly motivated for terrorism” right now, especially as their domestic situation is so untenable; with nationwide protests, a failing economy, and a strong opposition. On the international front, the mullahs are also facing major trouble, with the end of the appeasement policy (which cultivated in the 2015 nuclear deal) and the reimposition of meaningful sanctions against the Iranian Regime by the US.

Maryam Rajavi said that the mullahs have increased suppression at home and are trying to “blackmail” the international community through its expansion of terrorist actions in order to return to the status quo they enjoyed in 2016. These are not rogue individuals, but the systematic actions of the Regime’s leaders; although they will try to shift the blame, even onto the victims.

Maryam Rajavi said: “The regime’s diplomats are systematically engaged in terrorism and espionage. In reality, terrorism is a key instrument for advancing their foreign policy. The decisions for terrorist operations are made at the National Supreme Security Council presided by Hassan Rouhani, and subsequently approved by [Ali] Khamenei.”

Maryam Rajavi issued a list of ways that European governments could confront and contain the Iranian Regime's terrorism, which are noted here:

1. Stand firm against the mullahs

2. Make the dossiers on Iran’s terrorist activities public

3. Close the regime’s embassies and other centres of espionage and terrorism

4. Don’t deal with companies owned or affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Khamenei’s executive staff

5. Speak out against grave human rights violations in Iran, like the executions and torture of political prisoners

6. Prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Iran

7. Enforce the EU declaration of April 29, 1997, in dealing with the MOIS intelligence personnel and agents, which calls for:

a. The suspension of official bilateral Ministerial visits to or from Iran under the present circumstances

b. Confirmation of the established policy of EU Member States not to supply arms to Iran

c. Cooperation to ensure that visas are not granted to Iranians with intelligence and security functions

d. Concertation in excluding Iranian intelligence personnel from EU Member States

Chavez: To stop Syria’s horrors, halt Assad enablers

Linda Chavez is chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center

 

By: Linda Chavez

Boston Herald, February 26, 2018 - With the recent attack that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Fla., it is easy to miss the humanitarian crisis that occurred across the globe in Syria.
Last Tuesday, hundreds of civilians, including children, died when Syria’s government and its allies executed a direct strike on a rebel stronghold in eastern Ghouta — where Syrian forces used sarin in 2013, killing an estimated 1,500 people. The bloody faces of small children are all too familiar in this vicious war by Bashar Assad and his Iranian and Russian allies, who are intent on keeping him in power.
More than 5 million people have fled the regime. Another 6 million have been displaced within Syria. And hundreds of thousands of people have died in the civil war.
Though this carnage has drawn condemnation from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, as long as Assad’s partners in crimes against humanity, Russia and Iran, continue to supply arms and fighters to the region, the killing will not stop.
The United Nations has been impotent to impose meaningful sanctions because Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has veto authority to stop them, which it has used seven times so far.
But what of Iran’s role? Why has the international community not done more to focus on Iran’s activities in the region? And more importantly, why are U.N. bodies inviting members of Iran’s government to participate in human rights councils at the very time Iran is helping Syria massacre civilians?
The U.N. Human Rights Council meets in Geneva this week, and one of the speakers scheduled to address the group is Iranian Justice Minister Alireza Avayi. That any official of the Iranian regime should address the council is appalling, but that this particular official should do so at this particular time is doubly so.
Iran’s human rights record is one of the worst in the world, a matter affirmed not just by independent human rights organizations but by the U.N.’s own reports. The latest report on human rights conditions in Iran, issued in August 2017, criticized the government for its abuses against its own people, including at least 247 executions — many for drug offenses — as well as floggings, binding, amputations and stoning, not to mention the routine abuse of women’s rights and those of religious and ethnic minorities.
But Avayi’s participation is particularly offensive given his personal history of egregious human rights violations.
Avayi was appointed by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani in August as the minister of justice for the Islamic Republic of Iran, but he has long been an arm of the mullahs who have ruled Iran for nearly 40 years. The European Union has accused Avayi of gross human rights abuses as head of the Tehran judiciary, responsible for arbitrary detentions, numerous executions and the violation of rights of prisoners.
But Avayi’s most infamous acts were his involvement in the mass executions that took place in 1988, when the regime executed more than 100,000 political prisoners and buried them in mass graves. Avayi was part of a so-called “death board” that oversaw these executions. These atrocities have only recently been recognized outside the community of the Iranian opposition group whose members constituted many of the victims, the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.
Avayi’s human rights abuses did not end there, however. They have continued to the present, including his department’s involvement in the torture and murder of dissidents after the 2009 protests in Tehran. So how can such a man be allowed to speak before an international body whose purpose is to oversee human rights?
If we want to stop the bloodshed in Syria and the entire region, we must do more to prevent Assad’s enablers. As long as Russia and Iran provide weapons, military forces and financial support to Assad, children and other innocent civilians will continue to die. Stopping the flow of money, arms and fighters to the region might be difficult, but some measures should be easy: Do not allow those involved in mass murder to address a U.N. gathering whose whole purpose is to protect human rights.
Linda Chavez was the U.S. expert to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 1992 to 1996. She is chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center.

France and Germany ask Putin to stop Syria attacks, hope for ceasefire

French President Emmanuel Macron and Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel arrive at a European Union heads of state informal meeting in Brussels, Belgium

- German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hoped world powers would agree a Syria ceasefire on Friday after they asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to back a corresponding U.N. Security Council resolution.

The two European Union leaders appealed to Putin -- whose military intervention in Syria gave President Bashar al-Assad the upper hand in the seven-year-old conflict -- to stop bombardments of the rebel-held pocket of eastern Ghouta.

Warplanes from Assad’s government forces and their allies pounded the densely populated enclave east of the capital Damascus for a sixth straight day on Friday.

“France and Germany call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the implementation of a ceasefire to provide civilian support, humanitarian access and medical evacuation, as called for by the UN,” the two governments said.

“France and Germany call on Russia to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard,” they said in a joint statement as Macron and Merkel met other EU leaders for talks in Brussels.

Following the meeting, EU leaders’ chairman, Donald Tusk told reporters: “The Assad regime is brutally attacking innocent men, women and children. Its backers, Russia and Iran, are allowing this to happen.”

He urged them to stop the violence. The EU called for an immediate ceasefire, urgent humanitarian access to and protection of civilians, he said.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters Merkel and Macron - who both said they hoped the ceasefire would be agreed - were also due to call Putin together after the vote in New York, which had been delayed.

Moscow, which has the power to veto U.N. Security Council resolutions, has often in the past blocked texts that would be damaging to Assad. Russia said on Friday it was ready to support the draft resolution, but with caveats.

The EU as a whole has only played a marginal role in the international diplomacy around the conflict in Syria, where the multi-sided war has killed hundreads of thousands and driven millions from their homes.

The bloc is trying to leverage its role as the world’s top aid donor to woo Assad back into the stalled U.N. peace talks, which have achieved little over the years.

The talks are now deadlocked as Damascus, Moscow and their other ally Tehran attempt a final push to re-establish Assad’s rule.