Under pressure from the government, the Belgian parliament has approved the controversial treaty between their government and the Iranian regime to swap prisoners, an act which has raised much skepticism in the past few weeks. Apparently, the Belgian government has succumbed to the regime’s pressure and hostage-taking policies.

In recent weeks, many Iranian dissidents, fearing the consequences of this dangerous deal will encourage the regime to expand its terrorism and hostage-taking policy, protested in Belgium in front of the parliament and the prime minister’s office and in front of the Belgian embassies in other countries.

There is no doubt that this deal was tailored to hand over the regime’s diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi, who was involved in a bombing plot against the meeting of the Iranian Resistance in 2018.

It should be noted that Iran’s regime, as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, is being encouraged by the “weakness of the European countries” to continue its hostage-taking policy.

This was reflected in the recent comments of the spokesperson of the regime’s foreign ministry, who, by referring to the EU countries, said, “The issue of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has always been and will be discussed in Iran’s negotiations with other countries. Regarding the European countries, I believe they should prevent the creation of an environment for political media activity for this organization and should not tie their own political and economic interests in relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran to the fate of a terrorist organization called the hypocrites.”

Using the EU’s political and economic weakness, the regime is forcing them to silence any opposing voice, which should be interpreted as a warning for more terrorism.

This can be seen clearly in the recent speeches of the regime’s supreme leader’s mouthpiece Hossein Shariatmadari, who said, “When Iranian citizens are not safe in European countries, why should the nationals of those countries enjoy full security in Iran? The relevant officials have to remove the obstacles to punishing the regretful Swedish government and show the European governments – and in this case, the governments of Sweden, Germany, France, and Belgium – setting up a court and accusing and arresting innocent Iranian citizens, will cost them dearly.”

He added, “The system has many levers at its disposal to punish European governments, and it should not delay using them.”

The question is, how long will the EU endure such humiliation by the godfather of global terrorism? All the while risking the lives of their citizens and the Iranian diaspora who trusted them to enjoy a secure and safe life far away from the threats of this regime. While the EU governments are constantly choosing the wrong path, the people’s representatives have often objected to such decisions.

As a result, this shameful treaty has found many opponents in the Belgian Parliament, the European Parliament, the European and American public opinion, and human rights associations and organizations. At least 100 European parliamentary groups have expressed their surprise and dissatisfaction with the Belgian government’s shameful and dangerous treaty.

Even the most prominent jurists have declared this to be a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1373. This treaty was signed secretly, and in the last weeks of the parliament’s work, it was presented to the parliament among several other treaties with a surprising urgency.

It has been done in such a way that even the opposition within the ruling coalition was forced to vote under the pressure of the well-known alibi of ‘national security’ every time a government decided to appease this regime. This action is a major step backward in expanding democracy and global peace in a situation where the regime has decided to speed up its nuclear project.