Speaking at a conference entitled Iran: Nuclear Ambitions and Threats in the European Parliament headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Sub-committee for Defence and Security, Karl von Wogau, said that from the position of the EUs security and defence, the worst possible scenario was if nuclear weapons ended up in the hands of terrorists.
If Iran’s nuclear weapons were peaceful, why have they hidden them for so many years, von Wogau asked.
[Iranian President Mahmoud”> Ahmadinejad’s recent speech about wiping Israel off the map shows clearly the dangers posed by this regime, he said.
The German Euro-MP said that it was a mistake to have amicable meetings with the Islamic Republic since the country had reneged on its pledge to stop uranium enrichment activities. Instead, he suggested, it was time for Irans nuclear dossier to be referred to the Security Council by the end of November.
Another Euro-MP with expertise in European security and defence, Paulo Casaca, said, It is not only in the interests of the West, but also to the interest of the Iranian people to stop Iran’s nuclear activities.
Casaca, who heads the European Parliaments delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and is co-chair of the parliaments Friends of a Free Iran inter-parliamentary group, has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian regimes policies.
The Estonian Euro-MP Tunne Kelam told the meeting that the EU should take steps to send Tehrans nuclear file to the Security Council. Otherwise, this regime will catch the world off guard, said Kelam, a prominent dissident in his country during years of totalitarian rule.
Kelam said that the EU had to change its policy vis-à-vis Iran to prevent the catastrophe that is about to happen.
If there are no alternatives to this regime, we would have no choice but to work with the current regime. In my view, the National Council of Resistance is the best alternative, he said, referring to the opposition group that first revealed Tehrans secret nuclear pursuit in August 2002.
Lithuanias former President Vytautas Landsbergis, now a Euro-MP, made a passionate call for active support to be given to the democratic opposition in Iran.
The Iranian people are victims of the regime’s nuclear policy. Were the people of Germany in support of Hitler? They were themselves victimised. Now, it is the Iranian people who will be victimised, Vytautas said.
Scottish Tory Struan Stevenson, one of the leaders of the ruling conservative coalition in the European Parliament, denounced the European Unions pathetic attempts at appeasement and said this policy has simply helped the oppressive mullahs regime to accelerate its efforts to procure nuclear weapons.
The EU’s policy resulted in the presidency of the hostage-taker and terrorist Ahmadinejad, whose horrifying remarks about wiping Israel off the map shocked the world, Stevenson said.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, the foreign affairs committee chairman of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, told the conference that Iran was also working on multiple projects to produce missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The Revolutionary Guards are working on a type of missile named Ghadr with a range of 2500-3000 km, which could reach Berlin, Rome, Athens, Vienna and other European cities, Mohaddessin, whose book Islamic Fundamentalism: the New Global Threat has become a best-seller, told the meeting.
The Ghadr project is now 70 percent complete, the Iranian dissident said, without giving a date for the final production of the missile.
