She said: “As a mullah, Hassan Rouhani is a defender of the ruling theocracy and has sworn allegiance to the velayat-e faqih (absolute rule of the supreme leader). Rouhani has been among the most senior officials of the religious fascism ruling Iran throughout the past 37 years and has been involved in all its atrocities. He should face justice for crimes against humanity.”

The statement was statement released on January 28 by the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It suggested that it would be best if relations with the Iranian were to be made contingent upon a halt to executions and an improvement of human rights in Iran.

The human rights abuses in Iran under the “moderate” Rouhani are appalling. They includes some 2200 executions (the highest number in the past 25 years), all out support for the Assad dictatorship and the slaughter of the Syrian people, the missile attack against Camp Liberty residents, and the official order for the expansion of the ballistic missile program of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which is tantamount to proliferation of WMD. Suppression and executions of Sunni Muslims and Christians have been stepped up, and in spite of all his promises Iran’s economic situation has deteriorated since he has committed himself to pay for the expenditure of the wars of the IRGC and the regime’s para-military forces in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. His record proves the baseless and absurd nature of the myth of “moderation” in the clerical regime.

The NCRI argues that Rouhani’s claim to moderation is a lie meant to attract the West’s assistance in pursuing his mandate to save the crisis-riddled regime, which the overwhelming majority of Iranians seek to overthrow. In truth he is “uninterested and incapable of distancing himself, in practice or in words, from the wave of executions in Iran and Bashar al-Assad’s massacre of the Syrian people.” That explains why he has expressed unequivocal and explicit support for executions and for Bashar al-Assad. 

Rolling out the red carpet for Rouhani by European governments amounts to appeasement of the terrorist regime. Diplomatic engagement will strengthen the regime as a whole and its most repressive factions, and will be to the detriment of human rights in Iran. “Welcoming Rouhani will only embolden this regime in the torture and execution of the Iranian people, further warmongering in the region, especially in Syria, and export of Islamic extremism and terrorism.”

What is happening is against the will of the Iranian people. An end to the current regime and its manipulative politics is imperative for peace and fighting terrorism in the region and the world.