The West must aid Iran’s democratic revolution, say UK lawmakers
A cross-party council of MPs and peers believes that Western nations, including the UK, must back Iran’s democratic revolution.
A considerable portion of Iranians, according to the argument made at the discussion in the UK Parliament on Wednesday, oppose the regime and would favour the development of a free, democratic, and secular republic but not a return to the nation’s past monarchy.
However, the UK must take action to help demonstrators, including designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation and supporting the resistance movement, according to MPs, in order to help Iranians overcome the “brutal autocracy” that has cracked down on months-long nationwide protests.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran was supported at the meeting as a “viable democratic alternative to the dictatorship.”
Read | EU eases sanctions on Syria to fasten quake aid
The NCRI, led by Maryam Rajavi, has proposed a ten-point reform plan for Iran’s democratic future, which is backed by thousands of Iranians abroad.
Struan Stevenson, a former Scottish MEP and current coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change, pleaded on the UK government to sever ties with Tehran and back the NCRI.
“The mullahs have started using a different technique during the current protests, seeking to link the opposition to the monarchy, to dissuade people from joining the rallies,” he said.
Stevenson presented his latest book, “Dictatorship and Revolution: Iran — A Current History,” which explores the nation’s political past and identifies its most serious present and future problems, at the meeting.
“As Struan explains in his book, the Iranian people see only one way ahead to liberty and human rights, and that is an Iran under true popular rule, a democratic republic,” said MP Steve McCabe, who also serves as co-president of the British Campaign for Iran Freedom.
Because they oppose democracy and democratic government, the masses reject the shah and the mullahs.
McCabe drew comparisons between Pahlavi’s use of the Savak secret police organisation to terrify opponents and the Iranian regime’s use of the IRGC to keep power.
The shah and the mullahs are considered to be synonymous with totalitarian dictatorship in the minds of the majority of Iranians, according to MP Bob Blackman, co-president of the International Committee of Parliamentarians for a Democratic Iran.
The highest price has been paid by generations of Iranians to ensure a free and democratic Iran for as long as it takes because of this.
A member of the House of Lords named Baroness Verma claimed that women are both the “driving force for change” and the “guarantor of democracy” in Iran and that they are playing a “prominent role” in the country’s protest movement.