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West Must Correct Policy on Iran

He wrote about his address to the French National Assembly and members of the French Parliament at Victor Hugo Hall on January 17.

The event was designed to discuss the future for French and European Policies towards the Middle East, in particular, towards Iran.

Vidal-Quadras wrote: “Dramatic missteps and miscalculations have defined Iran policy in Europe and the Americas over these past several years. Indeed, many mistakes that are ongoing to this day date back to the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.”

He accuses the West of attempting to play nice with the Regime, making up a moderate faction, rather than opposing them for the violence they promote.

He continued: “It seems that almost as soon as the repressive theocratic government came to power, its Western interlocutors were looking for opportunities to foster cooperation with that regime and to pursue friendships with supposed moderate factions within it. Time and again, it has been revealed that those moderate factions do not actually exist, and yet the overall approach to Iran policy has rarely deviated.”

When the west calls Iranian President Hassan Rouhani a moderate, they imply that executing over 3,000 people in three years, cracking down on free speech and freedom of the press are moderate approaches. A notion that the UN must not agree with, as they passed a resolution on the state of human rights abuses in Iran, in December 2016.

Vidal-Quadras notes that the West should support the Iranian Resistance, led by Maryam Rajavi, if they want to help the people of Iran and the people of the middle east.

He wrote: “Mrs Rajavi’s speech described Iranian contributions to rampant human rights abuses in Syria, as well as pointing out that the Iranian regime remains the greatest obstacle to a political resolution for that conflict.  It is shameful that leading policymakers have turned their back on human rights abuses affecting the 80 million people of Iran, especially when so many of them are willing to risk arrest and torture by protesting their Government and rallying behind the resistance movement.”

 

He concluded: “Western governments now have a clear choice. On one hand, to continue to invest in a regime that is likely to go even more hardline now that the leading “pragmatist” is gone. Or, on the other hand, they can break with a decades-long tradition of ignoring human rights abuses and marginalising Iran’s democratic opposition to finally begin to pursue a better future both for true Western interests and for the Iranian people.”

 

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