Zarif’s Humiliation In Europe – OpEd

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Last month, the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif had the nerve to visit three Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden and Norway). He expected a walk in the park but to his surprise Iranians residing in Sweden and Norway came out strong and taught him a lesson or two.

Zarif and his bosses, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, hoped for the best but the visits turned into a nightmare. At a press conference in Stockholm after meeting Zarif, Deputy Swedish Prime Minister Margot Wallström, said: “We did not invite him, he came himself.”

The message of the Iranian people’s protests against Zarif was heard loud and clear in Europe: No more appeasement of the murderous mullahs.

A few weeks earlier, Swedish Iranians sent an even stronger message when thousands rallied in Stockholm, urging Scandinavian countries to stop dealing with the most active state sponsor of terrorism, world record holder of executions per capita and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

In the first half of this year, the clerical regime hanged 110 people, among them two juveniles. Last week, it hanged nine prisoners en masse. In a shocking report, Reporters without borders said that at least ten Iranian women journalists are currently in jail. Iran is ranked 170th out of 180 counties in RS’s World Press Freedom Index.

The unresolved case of the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 continues to haunt the regime. Zarif’s trip coincided with the 31st anniversary of that massacre. In 2016, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), initiated the Campaign of Justice for those fallen for freedom in the fateful summer of 1988.

Later that year, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri’s son released an archived audio tape of his late father’s meeting with four members of the so-called Death Committees in charge of the massacre. Montazeri was designated as the heir to the previous Supreme Leader Khomeini, but he fell out after publicly criticizing Khomeini’s notorious hand written fatwa ordering the 1988 massacre. The result was a crime against humanity and an estimated 30,000 prisoners were executed.

Amnesty International has done a great job releasing a series of eye-opening reports on the 1988 massacre, including the December 2018 report entitled Blood-soaked secrets: Why Iran’s 1988 prison massacres are ongoing crimes against humanity and more recently Iran: World turning blind eye to crisis of mass enforced disappearance.

Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for MENA. had this to say after the latest AI’s report about the ordeal of the families of 1988 massacre: “The families of those secretly killed in the 1988 prison massacres are still living through a nightmare.”

Many Iranians who came out to denounce Zarif had their loved ones executed by the likes of him in 1988. Some still bore the scars of horrors committed in the clerical regime’s prisons simply for reading an MEK flyer in the 80s.

Recently Zarif landed on the U.S. sanctions list where he belongs. His colleague and Justice Minister in President Hassan Rouhani’s first cabinet, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, a senior member of the notorious Death Committee once again defended the regime’s darkest era and said that the regime “We have not yet settled the score with the MEK.”

He has since been promoted as adviser to the head of judiciary, Ebrahim Raisis, another former member of the 1988 Death Committee. The majority of those executed in the summer of 1988 were members and supporters of MEK.

Zarif, therefore, is a propagandist and apologist for a murderous regime. His trip to Scandinavian countries and later Paris was a turning point for the regime and its European interlocutors. He had hoped for a publicity stunt intended for internal consumption. Defections in the regime, especially within the rank and file of the IRGC, is becoming commonplace.

With biting sanctions, an empty government coffer and an appeasement policy on life support, top brass IRGC fat cats need much more than a Zarif’s publicity stunts. Zarif went back empty handed and probably received a slap on the wrist from Khamenei for embarrassing the regime by letting a member of his press corps escape and seek asylum in Sweden.

The trip was a disaster. Zarif was caught off guard with the reaction of brave Iranians sending a strong message to Tehran. Iranians showed that they no longer accept mullah regime officials in their host countries. Europe should listen.

Reza Shafiee

Reza Shafiee is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). He tweets @shafiee_shafiee.

4 thoughts on “Zarif’s Humiliation In Europe – OpEd

  • September 2, 2019 at 2:51 pm
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    The author should have documented his articl with the 110 names of the individuals who were hanged. Listing facts make the article stronger. Otherwise, I see the article as a full rumor against the leadership of the country. Iran has a great leadership because it has been trying to be economically and politically independent country that makes its own decisions. This is better for the Iranian people than a country of being a follower and cannot make any decision such as Iran under the Shah who was dumped by even nasters in the USA. Without AL-Sadat the Shah had no where to go: Typical Puppet’s life.
    I raised the issue about the facts because always some media pundits state that a certain country has killed many thousands but it turns out to be just fake news. It is the same story of Iraqi WMD and the Iraqi soldiers killed babies in 1991.
    It is so sad that people do not write article about the israeli killing of the Palestinian people and the Saudi killing of women who want to drive cars.

    Reply
    • September 4, 2019 at 2:22 am
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      So if the names of the people who were either hanged in public or in many prisons across the country changes your image about this theocratic dictatorship ruling Iran, then go Google it. Also go search Amnesty International’s report on human right abuses in Iran.
      I am very surprised to see someone who doesn’t know much about regime’s well publicized human rights violation, will defend the corrupt leaders of this medieval regime as though they are standing against “The imperialist powers of the world”!!!
      This is a regime which have devastated the country, plundered its wealth to make super rich officials and export terrorism across the globe. It has no support amongst Iranians and maintains power only through repression and public hanging.

      Reply
    • September 3, 2019 at 7:05 pm
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      Europe should listen to Iranians living in Iran rather than a few ‘brave’ Iranians, as the author names them, who have fled the country and live in Europe. Bravery is not demonstrating in the streets of European countries; bravery is to live in a country that suffers from the sanctions imposed against it by the most racist American president of all times that has cut the flow of food and medicine to the people in the street in Iran. If the author and the people he calls brave are brave enough had better join the Zionists and the racist and fascist Americans and start a war against the people under pressure in Iran. Or did they already do that but lost? That’s so. The organisation the author represents were terrorists shooting and killing people only because of their appearances and attires. What a shame. I am not a supporter of the government, but I am of the opinion that these man-slaughterers cannot be trusted. They are a bunch of losers that have gone astray ideologically. They were puppets of Saddam Hussein one day and the poor followers of John Bolton the other. Now they are talking of bravery and freedom. What sort of freedom? Do you really know what the word means? Iranian people are under pressure right now. That is true. But it is the same people that will solve their problems throughout time. They do not need the ‘brave’ people who hide under the umbrella of racists and fascists ruling the world.

      Reply

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