On Wednesday, May 22nd, Struan Stevenson voiced his concerns about the European Union’s continued appeasement of the mullahs’ regime in an op-ed on the United Press International website. Stevenson is the coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change and a former member of the European Parliament representing Scotland. He is also a longtime supporter of the MEK who has written extensively on the subject of the mullahs’ regime.
#Iran uses its agents to track down and eliminate opponents. Posing as diplomats, these #Iranian spies and assassins have launched a series of attacks across Europe and North America
My take in @UPI#MEK @SecPompeo @AmbJohnBolton @Potus #terrorism https://t.co/ZnYqG4AmC8— STRUAN STEVENSON (@STRUANSTEVENSON) May 22, 2019
In his latest piece, Stevenson discussed the failure of the E.U. to acknowledge the threat posed by the Iranian regime to the Middle East and the larger international community.
Terrorist Plots in the U.S. and Europe
Stevenson enumerated the many terrorist plots attempted in 2018 by the Iranian regime in the United States and Europe to eliminate their opposition. Last summer German police foiled an attempted terrorist attack on the annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran outside of Paris. Regime diplomat Assadollah Assadi was arrested and charged by Belgian authorities for personally handing over 500 grams of TATP explosives to a Belgian-Iranian couple who were arrested en route to the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of MEK members and dozens of high-ranking politicians from the U.S., Europe, and around the world. Assadi and three accomplices are now awaiting trial in Belgium on terrorism charges.
Iranian agents acting at the behest of the regime have been sanctioned for their roles in additional terrorist plots in the United States, Denmark, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Netherlands, and several regime diplomats and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) agents have been expelled from European countries. Stevenson emphasized that the regime uses its embassies to plan terrorist attacks on its opponents, which poses a danger to the international community.
Stevenson argued that the Iranian regime has now shifted their focus to a new enemy. U.S. oil sanctions and the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization have crippled the Iranian economy and hindered the ability of the regime to fund its terrorist proxies in the Middle East.
The refusal of the United States to submit to the long-standing Western policy of appeasement toward the Iranian regime has enraged the mullahs, and they have desperately sought a way to retaliate against the U.S. According to Stevenson, the regime instructed its proxies to sabotage ships near the strategically-valuable
Straits of Hormuz, damaging four commercial vessels, including two oil tankers. Regime proxies then carried out armed drone attacks against Saudi oil pumping stations.
Stevenson wrote that regime leaders then ordered General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the terrorist Quds Force, to meet with Iranian-controlled militias in Baghdad to tell them to prepare for a proxy war. According to Stevenson, this was followed by a rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
The United States’ Response
The United States responded to these threats by deploying an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers, and American troops to the Pacific Ocean.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has engaged in an escalating series of threatening actions and statements in recent weeks. Any attacks by them or their proxies against U.S. citizens or our interests will be answered with a swift and decisive response.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 10, 2019
United States President Donald Trump has voiced his willingness to engage in talks with Iran, but regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has so far refused. Trump and his administration have stressed that they do not seek war but will protect U.S. assets in the region. Last weekend, Trump took a stronger tone, tweeting, “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”
The unprecedented series of tough measures taken by the United States against the Iranian regime has led to what Stevenson called a “knee-jerk response” from the European Union. Those who were comfortable with the old policy of appeasement have struggled to preserve the Iran nuclear deal and to bypass oil sanctions in order to continue doing business with the regime. E.U. leaders are now urging the U.S. to act with caution, which Stevenson believes plays into the hands of the mullahs, who are seeking allies as they desperately seek to avoid the collapse of their faltering regime. According to Stevenson, the European Union will not be swayed from their support of the mullahs by any amount of aggression or terrorism, no matter how egregious.
Staff writer