Iran Focus: London, Apr. 29 The Belgian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution urging the European Union to re-examine the terror label placed on the main Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK or PMOI), according to the parliaments website. Iran Focus
London, Apr. 29 The Belgian Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution urging the European Union to re-examine the terror label placed on the main Iranian opposition group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK or PMOI), according to the parliaments website.
Lawmakers called on the Belgian government to reconsider the listing of the PMOI as a terrorist organisation within the framework of the European Union and on the basis of relevant information available.
The resolution, which was adopted unanimously on Thursday, also said that punitive measures must be considered if Iran continued to defy the international community over its suspected nuclear weapons activities.
It strongly condemns remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatening the existence of the state of Israel and denying the Holocaust as a myth.
It further called on Tehran to immediately cease all forms of support for terrorist groups.
It expressed deep concern over human rights violations in the Islamic Republic, citing public hangings, brutal punishments, arbitrary arrests, physical and psychological torture in prisons, assassination of dissidents, and discrimination against women, persecution of religious and ethnic minorities, and violations of freedom of speech and conscience
The MPs vote followed a similar resolution unanimously adopted by the Belgian Senate in December which also urged the government to re-evaluate the terror listing of the MeK.
In the absence of a precise definition of terrorism, branding Iranian opposition groups as terrorist for their struggle against a regime which is responsible for systematic violations of human rights must be avoided, the Senate resolution read.
The MeK was listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union in mid-2002, in what the EUs then-Spanish leadership called a goodwill gesture to Tehran.