Iran Focus
London, 23 Sep – Lord Maginnis of Drumglass, member of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF), and Independent Ulster Unionist peer writes in his September 21 article for Politics Home, that since the Islamic Republic of Iran was established thirty-seven years ago, American policy has sought compromise with a ‘moderate’ regime.
President Reagan’s sale of arms to Iran in exchange for American hostages was just the beginning. Former President Clinton’s administration exacerbated the situation when it defined the main Iranian opposition group as a terrorist organization, which later, former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, put to rights. Lord Maginnis writes that it has “proceeded to where the Obama administration has endorsed a dubious nuclear agreement and just last year paid 1.7 billion dollars in ‘ransom’ for Americans being held prisoner in the country last year.”
He writes, “The latter issue clearly demonstrates how slowly the West has made amends over the almost four decades of mishandling its relationship with the Islamic Republic. This is not to say that we have made no progress.”
Earlier this year, Secretary of State, John Kerry, visited Albania in a show of support to its government for allowing MEK members from Camp Liberty, Iraq, to resettle in that country.
This development reflects a new understanding of the Iranian Resistance, an acknowledgment of the hardships it has, and continues to, suffer. The rest of the world has learned about the missile attacks the MEK members suffered at Camp Ashraf, and later at Camp Liberty, how they’ve been robbed of personal possessions, as well as the blockade of medical supplies and basic services they endured.
“There is much that the US can do and should be doing to positively alleviate this situation. Obviously continuing support for Albania and any other nations that see fit to help Iran’s pro-democratic activists establish stable homes from which they can continue advocating a free Iran is essential. But realistic attention to Iranian human rights issues in general has surely to be a priority! Unfortunately, this attention has been virtually non-existent in recent years. Human Rights organizations and activists continually remind us that single-minded obsession with last year’s Iran nuclear agreement has only distracted from the ongoing abuse of the death penalty, the arbitrary arrest of activists and dissidents, the usage of torture,” according to Maginnis.
He adds, “Such distraction is indicative of the fact that the larger problem remains: the US and its allies still maintain an unjustifiably optimistic attitude view of the prospects for internal change in the Iranian regime. The nuclear agreement itself was regarded in some circles as a victory for moderation, having been spearheaded on the Iranian side by President Hassan Rouhani. But in the three years that he has held office, Rouhani’s alleged moderate credentials have repeatedly been shown to be an illusion. Under his leadership, the death penalty has spiked to levels not seen in the past 25 years.”
Maginnis refers back to the 1988 massacre that claimed more than 30,000 lives in just a few months of that summer. It appears that the main target of that massacre was the People’s Mojahedin, especially after the release of an audio recording on August 9 of this year. This 1988 recording features the Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri criticizing the participants in that massacre.
Maginnis said that, “The recording underscores the fact that some of the architects of the massacre sought to execute anyone who expressed the least sympathy with the Iranian resistance, even those who simply read MEK newspapers or magazines. Some 28 years later some members of that ‘Death Committee’ are still in power!”
He adds that, “The current rates of executions and politically-motivated arrests in Iran demonstrate that the more general attitude toward judicially-sanctioned violence have not changed, either. Anyone who aspires to a realistic understanding of the Iranian regime should not be seeking to cloak the awful reality of what has and still is happening.”
Compromising with Iranian policy is a mistake as far as Maginnis is concerned. “It really shouldn’t have required decades of advocacy by the Iranian resistance to unmask a regime that’s rotten to the core. Our relationship with the PMOI had to change for the better before our understanding of the regime did the same. Fortunately, that appears to be happening at last.”
Now that the U.S. has assisted in the relocation of the MEK, the truth will emerge and will no longer be under-reported by the free press. “Western Governments will no longer seek to conceal the atrocities of the Republic of Iran,” he concludes.
