The Iranian Regime is built on a long history of human rights violations, suppressing any form of dissent or challenge to their power, and expanding these dangerous ideas across the Middle East.

These bloodthirsty mullahs must be challenged by international leaders, but the lingering question is will they be?

The European Union is a powerful bloc of 28 countries who should be able to stand up the Regime and say ‘no more’, but on a visit to the country last week, a delegation of members of the European Parliament failed to do so.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) urged these politicians to counter their Iranian counterparts and directly address serious human rights violations, like the execution of children and the imprisonment of political activists.

There was even a briefing paper that was released ahead of the meeting from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the League for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI) which highlighted four key areas of concern: overuse of the death penalty, arbitrary detention and torture, discrimination against women and minority groups, and workers’ rights.

But the delegation didn’t even begin to tackle this; instead taking the time to listen to lies about opposition groups, take selfies with murderers, and laugh as if this was all a joke.

The meeting, which took place on the International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women, completely ignored the abuses of women under the Iranian Regime, specifically enforced dress codes, barriers to education and employment, bans for partaking in social activities (i.e. attending football matches, cycling), which can all result in violence towards from agents of the Regime if the rules are broken, and violent punishments that should have been done away with long ago, specifically flogging, blinding, amputations, torture, and the death penalty.

There are also many who see silence on human rights abuses- particularly by a parliament as strong as the EU- as a tacit endorsement for the abuse and the Iranian security forces, namely the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). If you choose to remain neutral in a situation of abuse, you are siding with the abuser.

Even if the EU politicians didn’t want to address the human rights violations of Iranian citizens- although they completely should have- you’d think that they would address the abuse of a European citizen.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British charity worker, was kidnapped by the IRGC on her way back from a family holiday last year and imprisoned on bogus national security charges. The Iranian Regime has since demanded £400,000 million for her release.

These politicians seem more concerned with trade deal and investments than with people’s safety. That should be deeply concerning for their constituents.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of more than 30 foreign or dual nationals being held to ransom in Iran, since the 2015 nuclear deal was signed. Who will be next?

The idea behind the deal was to persuade Iran to become more democratic through trade and access to the international community. That has clearly not worked and the Iranian Regime must be held to account for their crimes.

Source » ncr-iran