The Netherlands’ Foreign Minister visits Iran amid executions

Disrespect for human rights and democratic values

NCRI - The Iranian Resistance strongly condemns the visit of the Netherlands’ foreign minister Mr. Bert Koenders to Iran under the rule of religious fascism and calls on the country’s parliamentarians and human rights defenders to stop this visit that encourages this regime in carrying out its executions and suppression that is against the interests of the Iranian people and their will for the establishment of democracy. The leaders of the velayat-e faqih regime that the Netherlands’ foreign minister plans to meet have the execution of 120,000 political prisoners in their infamous record and are dubbed “Godfather of ISIS” by the Iranian people. The number of executions in the two years of Rouhani’s presidency stands at 2000. The leaders of this regime are, for example, the actual murderers of Motahare (Zahra) Bahrami, the Dutch-Iranian citizen who was arrested in the 2009 uprising and subsequently executed on January 29, 2011.

This trip in the midst of large number of executions is nothing but disrespect for human rights and democratic values. The leaders of the religious fascism ruling Iran stand to benefit from this and similar trips to cover up their medieval nature. These visits have only resulted in the continuation and intensification of suppression, especially the savage usage of the death penalty inside Iran and the export of terrorism and fundamentalism and warmongering in the region.

The visit by Mr. Bert Koenders is taking place while on September 16, the regime’s supreme leader Khamenei reiterated the regime’s policies and strategic principles. He wholeheartedly supported the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and stressed on the need to continue nationwide suppression domestically and warmongering, terrorism and aggressive meddling by the IRGC in other countries in order to ensure the survival of the regime.

Similarly, a day prior, the regime’s president Rouhani who was meeting IRGC leaders, emphasized on continuing regime’s aggressive meddling and warmongering in the region by saying, “We cannot be indifferent regarding Muslim nations.”

This visit is taking place while thousands of prisoners are on the death row and while political prisoners are constantly harassed and tortured. Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asserted on September 14: “Accelerated use of the death penalty, concerns about the right to a fair trial, and the continued detention of the journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders remain a major cause for concern” in Iran.

Similarly, in a statement on July 23, Amnesty International expressed its concern regarding the close to 700 executions in the first half of this year and noted: This “paints a sinister picture of the machinery of state carrying out premeditated judicially-sanctioned killing on a mass scale.”

Travelling to Iran under the rule of the mullahs, turning a blind eye to its crimes, and making concessions to this regime under whatever pretext is vehemently condemned by the Iranian people and Resistance and is utterly unacceptable. All relations with Iran need to be made contingent on the improvement of human rights and a halt to the death penalty.