Maryam Rajavi: Britain ought to base relations with Iran's regime on end to death penalty

NCRI - Maryam Rajavi's message to conference on human rights in Iran in the United Kingdom House of Commons, October 19, 2015:

Respectable members of the House of Commons and House of Lords,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Greetings to all of you.

Your defense of Iran's suppressed human rights is heartwarming to my fellow compatriots. Just last week, they were shocked by the hanging of a 23-year-old woman and a young man who were only 17 at the time of committing the alleged crime.

The machinery planned for daily executions has overshadowed the denial of all individual and social freedoms of my compatriots, and imposition of all sorts of punishments and restrictions on them. For example, two poets were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for their style of poetry; a film producer was condemned to six years in prison and 240 lashes of the whip.

Such dreadful incidents and the incessant clampdown on women and youths comprise the most significant aspect of a policy that bloodletting and destabilization are inherent to it.

Look at Iraq: The Iranian regime and the militia affiliated to the Qods Force are the main cause of instability in that country and have been most instrumental to the emergence and expansion of the ISIS. They have also exterminated the conditions for popular mobilization in Iraq to confront the ISIS.

Look at Syria: The main cause of instability are the Iranian mullahs. It is the Revolutionary Guards Corps that fights on the frontline of genocidal operations whose victims have exceeded 300,000. Tehran mullahs commanded a disastrous, nationwide crackdown, and brought about homelessness of millions of Syrians and mass migration of hundreds of thousands of them to Europe. The mullahs laid the grounds for Russia’s interference in Syria and escalation of the crisis there.

Look at Yemen: The mullahs and their proxy group led the country into war.

Now what must be done?

In recent months, a weak nuclear agreement has been achieved. Even if there were a very strong agreement, it would have been impossible to implement it without a firm confrontation of the mullahs' belligerence.

Meanwhile, there is a moribund economy, the lion's share of which is dominated by the Velayat-e Faqih religious dictatorship and its Revolutionary Guards Corps. The current recession and bankruptcy have left little room for engagement of European businesses. But even if there is a deal, it would be a deal directly with companies belonging to the Velayat-e Faqih and the Revolutionary Guards which would therefore provide fuel for the machinery of suppression and terror inside Iran and in the region.

And finally there is a religious dictatorship incapable of reform which has carried out the largest number of executions in the past quarter century ever since a so-called moderate president took office.

However, on the other side of the coin, there is an enthusiastic nation which has an organized and powerful Resistance of its own. A people and a resistance that desire lasting democracy with abolition of the death penalty, separation of religion and state, and equality of women and men. This is a force that holds the key to ending the crises in Iran and the Middle East.

The true and enduring blooming of European countries' relations with Iran is dependent on the path undertaken by this Resistance.

We have time and again experienced that any policy relying on the Iranian regime, which is the main cause of instability and genocide in the region, is doomed to fail.

The right policy is to side with the Iranian people and Resistance.

I call on Britain and all western governments to stop ignoring human rights abuses in Iran and predicate their relations with the Iranian regime on ending the death penalty.

I also call on them to fulfill their pledge to protect Iranian dissidents in Camp Liberty; those who are the main target of the Iranian regime’s killing and suppression.

Specifically, the inhuman medical blockade of Camp Liberty must be lifted.

Camp Liberty’s dossier and its management must be taken out of the hands of agents tied to the clerical regime in Iran.

It is a pleasure that more than 200 members of the House of Commons and House of Lords have signed a declaration calling for the adoption of a proper policy on Iran, specifically supporting freedom and human rights in Iran. I appreciate their initiative.

And I wish your conference success.