The US has spent a lot of time this month focusing on the global security threat that Iran poses, highlighting the Regime’s attempts to bomb the Free Iran rally, organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), in Paris on June 30. This shows or that the Regime is not only willing to commit acts of terror in Europe but also that they are terrified of their organised democratic resistance.

The Free Iran gathering, which is an annual event, called attention to the recent wave of protests that have taken over Iran since last December – something the Regime would rather sweep under the rug – and have only grown since NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi issued a call-to-action for pro-democracy activists in March.

The Regime – in another act of violence – tried to suppress these protests, by shooting 50 demonstrators dead in the streets, arresting over 8,000 and threatening them with the death penalty, and torturing at least 15 people to death. Still, the people came out to protest the Regime and call for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

But the majority of the West is ignoring the protests, even with the Regime’s terror plot of European soil, in order to placate the mullahs, but this is not acceptable.

The NCRI and Maryam Rajavi have a ten-point-plan to create a functional and peaceful democracy in Iran, with respect for the rights of women and minorities and the abolishment of the death penalty. They deserve the support of the West, particularly Europe, but for too long the international community has turned their backs, believing that there is no viable alternative to the mullahs.

Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, an independent Ulster Unionist member of the UK House of Lords and prominent member of the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF), wrote: “European leaders’ inability to recognize the Iranian alternative has resulted in years of misplaced policies and a certain level of willingness to overlook Iran’s history of terrorism and human rights abuses. It has also caused the international community to lift pressure from the Islamic Republic at a time when greater levels of assertiveness might have impeded the regime’s repressive capabilities and emboldened the popular uprising for regime change.”

The world has tried to appease the mullahs for 40 years now, but this has not changed anything. All in all, it would be best for the international community to turn their backs on the mullahs and embrace the resistance, which would help the people of Iran stand up to their oppressors

Lord Maginnis wrote: “The ongoing protests in Iran make it clear that the people of Iran recognize that the regime is ultimately responsible for the penalties imposed upon them…Any Western leader who turns away from this opportunity to finally bring modern, secular democracy to Iran, and by extension to the Middle East, will be on the wrong side of history.”