PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday 14^thJuly 2015

NUCLEAR DEAL WITH IRAN AN HISTORIC MISTAKE

A senior Conservative has attacked the P5 + 1 nuclear deal with Iran. Struan Stevenson, former MEP and currently President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association will say in a keynote speech in Westminster Hall, House of Commons on Thursday that the agreement signed in Vienna today was “An historic mistake”. In his speech Mr Stevenson will say:

“Determined to secure his footnote in history, Obama swept aside all warnings and fears and signed an agreement that effectively ends sanctions on the Iranian regime and releases over $150 billion of assets that were previously frozen. The West gets virtually nothing but empty promises in return. This is a windfall for a regime whose biggest export is terror; a regime which funds Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Bashir al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the brutal Shi’ite militias in Iraq. It is a windfall for the mullahs’ nuclear programme, which far from being suspended, will now be accelerated and it is a windfall for Iran’s expanding ballistic missile programme, which has intercontinental missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and striking targets in Israel, Saudi Arabia or even Europe. The nuclear deal with Iran will also trigger an arms race in the Middle East, creating a domino effect, with countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt rushing to buy nuclear weapons technology from Pakistan or other nuclear nations. 

“With rampant corruption and incompetence, the Iranian leadership has allowed large sections of the economy to collapse. The impact of sanctions on Iran, coupled with the recent collapse in oil revenues, has crippled the theocratic regime. Welfare handouts are being savagely cut, food prices continue to rise; the black market is burgeoning. While the top leaders live a life of luxury, anger is building amongst the poor. Increased repression, mass arrests, public hangings and floggings have been the regime’s response, because what they fear more than anything is popular fury spilling over into a new revolution, sweeping the fascist ayatollahs and their henchmen from power.

“Extinguishing the fires that are raging around the Middle East will not be achieved by handing a box of matches to the arsonist. By signing the agreement with Iran, the P5 + 1 nations have missed a unique opportunity to topple a rogue nation and restore peace and stability to the region.

“It is a great irony that in the same week the EU bailed out a bankrupted Greece, the West has bailed out a bankrupted Iran. We have saved the birthplace of democracy in the West and simultaneously dealt a deathblow to democracy in the Middle East.”

Struan Stevenson

Note: Struan Stevenson was a Conservative MEP representing Scotland in the European Parliament from 1999 until his retirement in 2014. He was President of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq from 2009 to 2014. He is now President of the European Iraqi Freedom Association (EIFA).