Iranian Advocacy Groups Rip European Governments for ‘Coddling’ Iranian Regime, Demand Cutting Ties

A protester holds a portrait of Iranian Mahsa Amini during a demonstration by Iranians liv
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP
Joshua Klein

Over half-a-dozen Iranian advocacy groups issued a letter calling out European governments for “complacency” toward the brutal Islamic regime, while demanding more sanctions and cutting diplomatic ties with the Islamic republic as ongoing protests continue to rock cities across Iran.

A diverse array of Iranian advocacy groups and Middle Eastern organizations in the diaspora penned a letter to European leaders on Wednesday in light of the latter’s alleged attitude toward human rights abuses committed by the Islamic regime, including the violent crackdown against peaceful protesters.

The letter, led by Iranian Americans for Liberty (IAL), has six signatories: the Constitutional Party of Iran (CPI), American Mideast Coalition for Democracy (AMCD), Persian American Civic Action Network (PACAN), European Iranian Association for Peace and Friendship (EIAPF), Council of Iranian Canadians (CIC), and the Association for the Promotion of Open Society (APOS). 

The groups are seeking to bring to the attention of European leaders the ongoing “uprising” that has taken place in Iran for six weeks now, while petitioning for “policies and actions consistent with [their] core values as European leaders.”

The letter is addressed to Charlie Weimers, Vice-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and member of the Swedish Democrats; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; French President Emmanuel Macron; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak; and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“While the protests started against the murder of an Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the Sharia Police, it soon spread to issues beyond mandatory Hijab and Sharia Law, turning into a full-fledged movement to overthrow the entire Islamic Republic theocracy,” the letter begins.

Since then, they continue, “hundreds of protesters, many of whom [are] women and children, have been brutally killed by the Islamic militia and armed plain-clothes agents” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who have “used firearms, batons, and other deadly weapons to crackdown the unarmed youths who are asking for their most fundamental rights of expression and assembly.”

“Unfortunately,” the groups claim, “European governments have been far too complacent about the nefarious actions of the Islamic Republic regime, both domestically and internationally,” noting:

From campaigns of assassinations of dissidents including an ex-prime minister exiled in France, to coordinating with drug cartels, to igniting sectarian wars all over the Middle East and creating waves of asylum seekers in Europe, the Islamic Republic has been a menace to Europe’s security and stability for decades.

“However,” they added, “many European leaders, by looking the other way, have succumbed to the bullying trait of the Islamic Regime in Tehran.” 

The letter also calls out “various European governments” that insist on “appeasing the terrorist regime in Tehran and trying to bargain with the different factions within the Regime” despite repeated failures.

“The regime knows this and capitalizes on this shortsightedness,” it reads. “Islamic Regime officials have been too confident by threatening their European counterparts [with] a fabricated narrative that meddling into their affairs could open up a floodgate of refugees to the already over-taxed European Union.”

Noting “years of silence and appeasement policy,” the letter blasts Europe for having “empowered the nefarious Islamic leadership in Tehran to openly admit to its role in providing Russia with suicide drones to target civilians in Ukraine.”

“In the face of this blatant violation of international treaties, European governments have thus far exercised reluctance to hold the Islamic Regime accountable,” it continues.

“Europe suffers from a lack of strategic vision and lucid policy to restore international order,” it adds. “It is [therefore] vitally urgent to bring this vision back in focus.”

Highlighting the “strategic alliance between Russia and Iran,” the groups insist that Europe treating both Iran and Russia “with the same set of policies” and extending its “sweeping regime of sanctions and boycott of Russia to the Islamic Republic” would be “both pragmatic and ethical.”

“The Islamic Republic has sided with Russia in this war and must be treated as a Russian ally,” they wrote. “Also, similar to sanctions on Russian oligarchs, members of the Iranian oligarchy should be banned from traveling to and be sanctioned in Europe as well.”

The letter also calls attention to “evidence of Iranian regime officials using commercial and private flights to send their families to Europe,” which has “resulted in many Iranians questioning Europe’s commitment to the values it represents.” 

“We think it is good policy and good politics to extend the oligarch ban and sanctions to the Iranian counterparts of the Russian oligarchs,” they argue.

Consequently, the groups call for an “immediate halt” to trade with Iran, as well as a “comprehensive regime of sanctions against” both regime officials and “the entirety of the regime.”

They also call on European countries to “immediately cut diplomatic ties” with the Islamic theocracy and recall their ambassadors.

“This move will send a strong signal to the Islamic Republic that it is no longer tolerated as a member of the international community, and it is time for it to let go of power and allow the people of Iran to elect their own leaders,” the letter reads.

It concludes by deeming the reality on the ground a “testimony to the resilience of the Iranians and their determination to reclaim their integrity, self-respect, and destiny.” 

As a result, they write, “it behooves the European nations to stand on the right side of history.”

In an exclusive statement made to Breitbart News, Bryan E. Leib, the executive director of Iranian Americans for Liberty (IAL) — a bipartisan community of Iranian Americans working to aid those living under the oppressive Iranian regime — called out officials from Europe for refusing to hold the Islamic theocracy accountable for its crimes.

“European leaders, much like the Biden administration, have been far too concerned with appeasing and coddling Khamenei Regime officials over the last two years than holding them accountable for their vast human rights abuses and continued fiscal sponsorship of terrorist groups,” he said.

He then called to “enact stiff sanctions against all Regime officials, suspend all trade activities with Iranian companies and to immediately sever all diplomatic ties with Tehran.”

“With the ongoing revolution happening inside of the Islamic Republic of Iran, this is Europe’s opportunity to show the world they stand with the liberty-seeking Iranian people,” he said. 

He also added that there was no point in waiting for the Biden administration’s lead on the issue because it would not occur.

“It’s up to the European leaders to step up to the plate in supporting the Iranian people,” he concluded.

The letter comes as massive protests continue to sweep Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic theocracy’s notorious “morality police” for violating strict requirements for women to keep their heads covered in public.

Amini was reportedly abducted and killed by the force for having exposed some hair from beneath her mandatory Islamic headscarf.

As a result, women cutting off locks of hair has become an international gesture of solidarity with Amini and the other oppressed women of Iran.

Iranian officials have unconvincingly claimed she died of natural causes after the patrol stuffed her in a van and carted her off to a grim detention center. 

However, her family insists she had no life-threatening health problems. 

Since then, a slew of incidents involving abuses and even deaths at the hands of the regime have been documented amid an ongoing clampdown on protests, with clips circulating showing Iranian regime officers brutally assaulting protesters.

Last month, representatives of Iran’s parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed Iran is currently witnessing a revolution “in the making,” asserting that despite the crimes and “savagery” committed by the regime’s “suppressive forces” — including the killing and torturing of protesters during current protests against the Islamic regime by angry citizens — the Islamic Republic is no longer capable of containing the current uprising which has entered its seventh week.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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