ACT NOW: Campaign to Stop the EU from Visiting Iran
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From January 7 to 11, 2010, members of the European Union (EU) plan to visit Iran. Many supporters of Iran's movement are against the trip and have suggested for everyone to write emails to the EU representatives to express their views on the matter.
The information in this post serves to create widespread recognition on why the trip must be cancelled.
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Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast:
"Representatives from the European Parliament will discuss various issues concerning Iran and the European Union."
He added that talks between representatives from the European Parliament and Iranian lawmakers
would be helpful in expanding relations between the two sides in different fields.
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"An 11-person European Parliament delegation is scheduled to visit Tehran next week,
drawing a rebuke from U.S. lawmakers concerned the visit could legitimize Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government."
"We believe that a visit from the EP would send the wrong message to the Iranian government and undermine the international efforts to end their nuclear program," 15 U.S. House members wrote European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek last week. "We urge you not to authorize the visit at this time."
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Lochbihler’s mission next week will not be the only recent gesture of appeasement towards the Islamist government in Iran by the European Union. In August, 20 EU member state heads of mission based in Tehran attended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s inauguration after his disputed re-election, after which 15 protesters were slaughtered in the streets by government forces.
The Swedish EU presidency at the time justified the diplomats’ presence at the ceremony by citing a need to “keep diplomatic channels open.”
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Iranian Foreign Ministry in site has welcomed "Visit of the EP Iran delegation" to Iran as a step to improve relations with Iran"
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Geoffrey Van Orden , member of the Iran delegation
“Under these circumstances, I cannot imagine that a delegation from the European Parliament will have any useful dialogue or that it will have any opportunity to engage freely with opposition leaders or the oppressed people of Iran. In the context of calls from the US and other democracies for further sanctions, the regime will draw comfort from a visit from the European Parliament. The visit will merely be manipulated by the regime for its own propaganda purposes. I have called on the President of the Parliament to cancel the visit”.
“Nine opposition demonstrators in Teheran and Tabriz have been shot in the last few days. The death of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, spiritual leader of the opposition, was marked by mass demonstrations which have been brutally attacked by the regime’s militia and plainclothes operatives. There seems little doubt that the regime is determined to develop a nuclear capability. Last month, the test-firing of a long range missile heightened international concerns. Every effort by the Western democracies to open a productive dialogue with Iran is met with provocation.
‘European Parliament’s Iran Mission must be cancelled’ says Tory MEP
Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden is demanding that the President of the European Parliament should intervene and cancel the scheduled visit of a Delegation from the Parliament to Iran in early January. On 17 December, Mr Van Orden called on the chairman of the Delegation, German Green MEP Barbara Lochbihler to cancel the mission but she refused.
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WRITE LETTERS TO THE EU AND STOP THE TRIP
USE THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ADDRESSES TO SEND YOUR LETTER
danielmarc.cohn-bendit@europarl.europa.eu,
miguelangel.martinez@europarl.europa.eu,
boguslaw.sonik@europarl.europa.eu,
marietje.schaake@europarl.europa.eu,
stafa@otenet.gr,
martin.ehrenhauser@europarl.europa.eu,
martin.ehrenhauser@europarl.europa.eu,
office@ehrenhauser.at,
kurt.lechner@europarl.europa.eu,
dan.jorgensen@europarl.europa.eu,
stavros.lambrinidis@europarl.europa.eu,
martin.ehrenhauser@europarl.europa.eu,
marietje.schaake@europarl.europa.eu,
office@ehrenhauser.at,
theodoros.skylakakis@europarl.europa.eu,
skylakakis@skylakakis.gr,
cornelia.ernst@europarl.europa.eu,
barbara.lochbihler@europarl.europa.eu,
OTHER IMPORTANT CONTACTS TO EMAIL:
Steven Vanackere
the next president who will take over starting July 2010
the next president who will take over starting July 2010
Vice-Premier Ministre et Ministre des Réformes institutionelles
Ministre des Affaires étrangères
Rue des petits Carmes 15
B-1000 Bruxelles
Tél: +32 (0)2.501.85.91
Fax: +32 (0)2.501 32 13)
Cecilia Malmstrom
the previous president
Javier Solana
MEP
Bernard Kouchner
France
Angelos Pangratis
The acting head of the EU delegation in DC
Vaclav Klaus
President of the Czech Republic
WHY WE DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH THE IRANIAN REGIME
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Proposed points to mention in letter to EU representatives:
1-At a time when the regime is suppressing the people who have risen for their individual and social rights and freedoms, the visit of an EU representative needs to be cancelled.
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2-Iranians inside and outside Iran request the condemnation of the regime’s crimes and its international isolation. These Iranians are not asking for better relations with Iran.
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3-90% of the national wealth and resources are possessed and looted by the Revolutionary Guards and the Supreme Leader to suppress people, develop nuclear weapons, and support terrorism and radicalism. The Iranian people are asking for the boycott and isolation of the regime instead of engaging in actions that will support their government.
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4-The trip of the EU representative will be used extensively by the Intelligence Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and other domestic and international lobbies to legitimize its criminal, terrorist, and nuclear activities, and spread more lies about the Iranian people and the regime’s opposition.
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5- The youth, women, and the people of our country are constantly subject to oppression, beatings, extra-judicial arrests, excruciating and vicious forms of torture, gang rape, flogging, death by hanging, amputation,etc. We demand the severance of a diplomatic relationship between Iran and Western countries. We demand the support for the Iranian people’s movement for freedom and democracy, and we don't want a shameful trip by a delegation of elected members of the EU which will serve against the people’s will. This trip will be used and abused by the oppressive regime of Iran.
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6-Such action under the current circumstances is disgraceful. The governments and parliamentarians of Western countries should end their politics of appeasement toward Iran’s oppressive clerics, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people. Cancel this disgraceful trip. If you want to help us, put international pressure on the regime to free political prisoners, stop torture, rape, and execution- end suppression-dismantle Revolutionary Guard and Basij-give up power to facilitate a free election under the auspices of the UN so that people can choose their desired system of government based on democratic principles.
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