MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

CONFERENCE

NOVOTEL PARIS ROISSY CDG

7 ALLÉE DU VERGER, ROISSY-EN-FRANCE.

SUNDAY 1^stJULY 10.30-13.30 hrs.

The demonstrations have continued all week in Iran. The Tehran Bazaar went on strike last weekend, with shopkeepers and market traders striking while thousands of protesters marched through the streets of the Iranian capital, chanting ‘Death to Khamenei’, ‘Think of us instead of Syria’ and ‘Shame on you mullahs’, showing their outright opposition to the current regime and its oppressive brand of fundamentalist theocratic fascism.

The uprising, which began late last year, has shaken Iran. The nationwide protests covered all 31 Iranian provinces and 142 cities. The 80 million Iranian citizens, over half of whom are under-30, have made it clear that they are fed up with living in poverty as the venally corrupt mullahs siphon off the country’s wealth to fill their pockets and to finance conflict and terror throughout the Middle East. 

I do not see any way in which the current Iranian regime can survive. There is rising inflation and massive unemployment, particularly amongst the young. Yet Tehran continues to pour billions into propping up Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the brutal Shi’ia militias in Iraq, the ruthless Houthi rebels in Yemen and terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Iranian people are no longer prepared to stand aside as the mullahs plunder their national wealth and turn Iran into a pariah state. The latest uprising has revealed the emergence of a courageous new force from within the heart of Iran’s long-suffering cities; a new force, prepared to risk their lives, to struggle for their rights and to fight for freedom and equality. This new force has, I believe, the capability of overthrowing the theocratic regime and restoring democracy. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, blames the uprising in his country on ‘enemies of Iran’. He is mistaken. People like me who openly support the brave protesters who risk their lives on the streets of that nation’s villages, towns and cities, are not the enemies of Iran. On the contrary, we are the friends of Iran and its beleaguered people. We are the enemies of the clerical tyrants, the Godfathers of terror, who have driven that country to the brink of deprivation and despair over the past 39 years of oppression and corruption and whose hands are stained with the blood of thousands throughout the Middle East. 

Obama’s policy of appeasement towards Iran was a huge mistake. The nuclear deal was absurdly one-sided, giving endless concessions to the Iranian regime. Its leniency made it easy for the mullahs continually to run a cart and horses through the terms of the agreement with virtual impunity. President Trump recognised that the Iranian regime was not living up to its obligations under the nuclear deal. Instead of contributing to regional peace and security, as the agreement called for, Iran is using proxy forces and a terrorist network to foment violence and victimize innocents across the greater Middle East. The regime is seeding these networks with increasingly destructive weapons as they try to establish a bridge from Iran to Lebanon and Syria.

It was the Iranian mullahs’ support for former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq and for Bashar al-Assad in Syria, two corrupt and murderous dictators who repressed their own people and particularly the Sunni communities in those two countries, that resulted in the rise of Daesh. Because the Sunnis were humiliated and brutally repressed, they were driven into the arms of the Islamic extremists. So, thanks to Tehran, ISIS grew and became a threat to the whole world. The Iranian regime exploited the war on Daesh as an opportunity to consolidate its policy of aggressive sectarian expansionism in the Middle East, murdering thousands of Sunnis and levelling ancient Iraqi cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul. Perennially confused by the Middle East, the US and UK foolishly helped the mullahs in their genocidal campaign, by providing air cover and bombing raids on these ancient Iraqi cities, which have now been reduced to dust.

By concentrating its efforts on obtaining a predominant position in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, the mullahs are endeavouring to secure pathways traversing Iran’s western borders through the Euphrates and Tigris valleys and the vast expanses of desert in Iraq and Syria, providing a link to Hezbollah in Lebanon and finally ending at the edge of the Golan Heights. These corridors will serve as conduits through which military supplies and military personnel can be sent to the battlefronts where Iranian proxies are actively engaged. To this end dozens of Quds Force affiliated military and political bases have been formed west of Mosul, under the guise of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) militia forces. 

But thankfully many of Iran’s neighbours in the Middle East have decided enough is enough. They are sick to death of the mullah’s meddling across the zone. They have been joined by the Americans, where both the Republicans and the Democrats have recognised the Iranian regime as the Godfather of terror and the main exporter of conflict. 

As the arrests and violent repression continue, the international community must not remain silent. The United Nations Security Council must adopt punitive measures against the regime. They must hold to account the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, most of whom were supporters of the PMOI. Many of these murderers are still in positions of power in Iran today. 

The bubbling miasma of nationwide protests in Iran is about to explode into a revolution of volcanic dimensions, driving the hated mullahs from power and paving the way for Mrs Rajavi and the PMOI/MEK to restore peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, women’s rights, an end to torture and the death penalty, an end to the nuclear threat and an end to foreign meddling. 80 million Iranians pray fervently for that day, which will secure peace across the Middle East and throughout the wider world.

STRUAN STEVENSON