‘Tehran is losing ground’

OPINION:

Allow me to begin by sending my regards to the people of Iran who are currently suffering under their regime, and express my solidarity with them as they are faced with a vicious crackdown, persecution, as they simply demand change in their country.

In a recent statement on Iran, 120 members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords declared their support for the popular protest in Iran against corruption and suppression and supported a 10-point plan for a future free Iran presented by NCRI president-elect, Mrs. Madame Rajavi. Tehran’s destabilizing activities in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen; its support for terrorism; the actions against Iranian dissidents in Europe; and the pursuit of a nuclear and ballistic missile program, all which violates the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, the U.N. armed embargo against Iran, the nuclear deal, and counterterrorism laws in the United Kingdom. They are all well-documented in recent statements by the U.N. Secretary General, the IAEA, and many Western governments. That is why I call on the UK government to join the maximum pressure of this campaign on the regime. This campaign has already denied Tehran billions of dollars they could have used otherwise to destabilize parts of the Middle East and further afield. But thanks to this pressure, Tehran is losing ground in places like Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

But the UK government should also work with allies in the EU and the U.N. in order that we support an immediate extension to the U.N. arms embargo against Iran, as well as the reimposition of international and U.N. sanctions against Tehran that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal. Furthermore, the UK should proscribe the entirety of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization to deny it the funds it needs to suppress the people of Iran and to export terrorism abroad. The international community has a responsibility and the means to deny Iran’s regime the funds it needs to continue its unacceptable and malign behavior both at home and abroad. To muster the political courage to do that, the international community should look to the Iranian people and to their resistance movement led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi who has shown the way.

So, the time is now here. The time is now ready for change.