Mismanagement and inhuman policies of the mullahs’ regime make the coronavirus spread again in Iran, with the people paying the daily price with their lives. The mullahs tried to use the death toll as a tool to break the US sanctions and the maximum pressure campaign.

There couldn’t be a worse time for launching military satellites while Iran faces one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.

Iran’s coronavirus crisis activated the latter’s diplomacy in an unprecedented manner. The mullahs orchestrated a considerable diplomatic campaign aimed at lifting, if possible, or weakening, as a minimum, of International sanctions mostly defended by the US administration against their regime.

On  4^th November, the government of the United States announced that it was issuing fresh sanctions against a number of high-level officials in Iran. The US Department of the Treasury announced the news on the 40^th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis in which the US Embassy in Tehran was stormed in 1979. The standoff lasted 444 days and 52 American citizens and diplomats were held hostage during this time.

MEK: #Iran Is Still Leading State Sponsor of Terror and Hostage Taking https://t.co/Rp6mTzVBY4#MEK #FreeIran @USAdarFarsi

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 6, 2019

The US Treasury Department announced that the sanctions would affect Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and nine individuals that are linked to the country’s Supreme Leader – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It said that the sanctions are part of an effort to “block funds from flowing to a shadow network of Ali Khamenei’s military and foreign affairs advisors who have for decades oppressed the Iranian people, exported terrorism, and advanced destabilizing policies around the world”.

On Monday the US Treasury imposed sanctions, on the #Iranian regime’s Armed Forces General Staff and nine individuals, including Ebrahim Raissihttps://t.co/9yqRW7H2UV#Iran #MEK @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/brRrFlymM5

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) November 5, 2019

One of the concerned individuals is former presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi who currently serves the regime as head of the judiciary.

It has also been rumored that a number of American senators are calling for further sanctions against the regime.

These latest sanctions are highly significant because of who is targeted. Raisi was part of a so-called “death commission” during the 1988 massacre – one of the most horrific crimes against humanity in recent times in which more than 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members and supporters of Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/Iran), lost their life. He personally decided the fate of numerous political prisoners who were extrajudicially murdered following a fatwa that was issued by the Supreme Leader at the time.

 

For the first time ever, the 1988 massacre has become the direct subject of sanctions imposed on Iran. This is a major boost to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the entire Iranian Resistance movement that has been calling for justice for the victims of this terrible crime against humanity. Years of appeasement have allowed the regime to enjoy impunity for this entire time.

The US Treasury Department also emphasized the regime’s warmongering and acts of terror across the region and beyond. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said: “Today the Treasury Department is targeting the unelected officials who surround Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei and implement his destabilizing policies. These individuals are linked to a wide range of malign behaviors by the regime, including bombings of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983 and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association in 1994, as well as torture, extrajudicial killings, and repression of civilians. This action further constricts the Supreme Leader’s ability to execute his agenda of terror and oppression.”

The US authorities also pointed to Iran’s meddling in Iraq, saying that the regime’s destructive policies are highly concerning.

For years, many countries have led policies of appeasement towards Iran. This has done nothing more than embolden the regime and the United States’ move to hold the regime accountable for its actions is long overdue.

For many of the more worrying aspects of the regime’s behavior to be addressed directly through sanctions is positive and one can only hope that other countries follow suit.

International law expert and former apprentice diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Perviz S. Khazai, wrote an op-ed for news site Eurasia Review. Khazai charts the nature of EU-Iran relations in the wake of the US’s designation of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

Khazai’s point of reference begins in 2010 when the Iranian regime and Europe butted heads over the Iranian nuclear program. This rift was smoothed over by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPO), the nuclear agreement signed in 2015.

“However, since agreeing to the 2015 deal, Iran has expanded its nuclear program,” Khazai writes, “despite warnings from the United States and European Countries.” This culminated in the early months of 2019, when the Iranian regime attempted to launch a satellite into orbit.

Europe is “Gravely Concerned”

The EU expressed its concern and has called on the Iranian regime to refrain from any further missile launches. The EU Council said in a statement, “these activities deepen mistrust and contribute to regional instability.”

Then, in February, the EU discussed re-imposing select sanctions on Iran. The discussion marked the first time Iranian sanctions had been brought to the table since 2015. The sanctions were limited. The EU only chose to sanction one deputy minister of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) and two MOIS members. But they represented a cooling attitude towards the Iranian regime following several failed terror attacks on European soil.

The EU Is Resisting the US’s Economic Sanctions

Aside from its own limited sanctions, the EU has displayed a reluctance to follow the US down the road of economic sanctions. Following the re-imposition of US economic sanctions under US President Donald Trump, several European nations established INSTEX, a payment channel through which they could continue trading with the Iranian market and circumvent US sanctions.

But rifts in the regime leadership have hampered INSTEX’s methods. In March, the regime Supreme Leader issued a statement during a public speech that INSTEX was a “bitter joke” and reminded his followers that the EU cannot be trusted.

Although persevering with INSTEX to continue trading with Iran, several EU nations have sanctioned Iran’s Mahan Air. The airline is known to carry resources and equipment for the regime’s IRGC.

EU sanctions on the clerical regime are requisite to the fight on terrorism in Europe but they must be completed by blacklisting of the entire intelligence and IRGC apparatus and by prosecuting and expelling the regime's terrorist diplomats and mercenaries. #BlackListMOIS

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) January 8, 2019

“Germany imposed its ban on Mahan in January, with the German foreign ministry saying this was necessary to protect Berlin’s ‘foreign and security policy interests,’” Khazai wrote.

Iranian Hackers Are Promoting Instability

Reports from Reuters in November found that the regime systematically targeted MEK members living in European countries through online misinformation channels. The Netherlands is also accusing the regime of being behind two assassinations of political dissidents on Dutch soil last year.

“Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Islamic revolutionary guard’s corps (IRGC) have been dedicated to export [sic] terrorism abroad. Despite the efforts of the EU and US during past years, Iran has never terminated its support for terrorist organizations especially in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq,” Khazai writes.

Recognize the right of the Iranian people to overthrow religious fascism and to achieve freedom#IStandWithMaryamRajavi #چهل_سال #MEK #Iran@siavoshhosseini pic.twitter.com/4nIEOVbbE0

— maddJavadi (@MaddJavadi) February 10, 2019

Khazai calls on the EU to support the US’s designation of the IRGC as a terror organization. “Europe should sit up and take notice that the protests and strike action ongoing across Iran since the end of 2017 by teachers, laborers, students, truck drivers and so many more [are] already a game changer,” he writes.

Khazai concluded,

“European governments and institutions would be wise at this point to discontinue their current dialogue with Tehran while they undertake a full and in-depth review of their approach toward Iran. Full transparency and accurate information made available to the public would be an essential requirement.”

Staff writer 

 

The Romanian Parliamentarians for a Free Iran responded to the recent state-sponsored terrorist plot to bomb the annual NCRI Grand Gathering in Villepinte, France, outside of Paris, on June 30th, with a statement condemning the attempted terrorist action and asking for the European Union to take a firm position against the Iranian regime. Their statement reads, in part:

“Reports from numerous sources have been published regarding the terrorist plot targeting the National Council of Resistance of Iran convention in Paris indicating an Iranian regime diplomat working in their embassy in Austria by the name of Asdollah Assadi was the mastermind behind this terror attack. The European Union has more than anywhere across the globe suffered from these atrocities.

“In the last decade of the 20th century a wave of assassinations and terror bombings against the mullahs’ political dissidents in Europe increased to such an extent that, in protest, the European Union expelled all of the Iranian regime’s ambassadors and recalled its ambassadors from Iran. This serious and firm measure forced the Iranian regime’s to pledge to the Europeans such measures will never be repeated on European soil. Receiving this pledge the European Union reestablished its diplomatic relations with the Iranian regime. However, Tehran’s policy in regards to exporting and supporting terrorism has not changed and will continue as long as this regime is in power.

“The recent terror plot in Paris, with 500 grams of explosives, is a new and unprecedented level of state-sponsored terrorism.

“The Romanian Parliamentarian Committee for a Free Iran condemns this organized crime against humanity in the heart of Europe and in a rally consisting of international dignitaries from five continents of the globe and tens of thousands of other participants. This Committee calls on the international community, especially the European Union, to carry out the necessary investigation into those operatives involved in this criminal plot and take the necessary punishing measures.”

Similar statements were also issued by “In Search of Justice,” a European committee with over 4,000 MPs, as well as Italy’s Committee of MPs and Citizens.

Meanwhile, regime President Hassan Rouhani went ahead with his visits to Switzerland and Austria, choosing to expend his efforts in an attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the regime’s future business deals despite impending sanctions due to the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.

Rouhani decided to ignore the foiled terrorist attack, despite the fact that an Iranian diplomat in Austria was arrested in Germany in connection with the plot.

Rouhani also chose not to acknowledge that the recent terror plot took place alongside continuous terror threats by agents of the Iranian regime against MEK members in Albania. The failed plot at the NCRI gathering was a convention attended by 100,000 people, many of whom were members of the MEK.

While the regime visits Europe asking for the EU to continue to finance its activities through business dealings, back at home it works to suppress its people. It sends its agents to silence those who leave the country and tell the world of its corruption. The regime has shown it will do anything to stop the MEK, or failing that, to slow it down, including using diplomats to carry out terrorist missions.

Europe must not continue to appease the mullahs. Sanctions must be reimposed if the regime is to be stopped from this behavior. Rudy Giuliani spoke at the NCRI Grand Gathering this year and said that

Europe should be “ashamed” of itself for continuing to work with the Iranian regime.

“Anybody who thinks the ayatollahs are honest people is a fool,” he said. “They are crooks and that’s what Europe is propping up … murderers and sponsors of terrorism. Instead of taking an opportunity to topple them, [the Europeans] are now left propping them up.”

The Iranian people deserve a government that does not use its diplomats to murder the opposition. The international community does as well. The EU must reimpose sanctions. Not doing so constitutes approval of their actions.

Staff Writer