On Friday 28 September 2012, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced publicly her long-overdue decision to delist the main Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO-list).
The historic rulings in the US courts in favour of the PMOI's petition and granting a subsequent Writ of Mandamus setting aside the FTO-designation were the real reason behind Mrs Clinton's decision.
The legal struggle against the unjust terror label imposed on the PMOI began many years ago in the UK and continued for eight years. Finally, through the suffering of the Iranian nation, the sacrifice and unrelenting round-the-clock efforts of members and sympathisers of the Iranian Resistance as well as unsparing support by an unprecedented bi-partisan front of parliamentarians, former US state officials and human rights personalities across the globe, the PMOI succeeded in crushing the terrorist label in its birthplace, the United States.
Following the delisting decision, on October 3, 2012, the Friends of a Free Iran intergroup in the European Parliament discussed the consequences of this delisting and the next necessary steps that have to be adopted.
Oct. 03, 2012, Meeting in the European Parliament, Brussels. From left to right, Romana Jordan, MEP, Nele Lijnen, Chair of Belgium Senate Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunities, Struan Stevenson, MEP, President of the EP Delegation for Relations with Iraq, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice-President of European Parliament, Tunne Kelam, MEP, Gunter Verheugen, former Vice-President of European Commission, Jim Higgins, MEP, Member of Bureau of the European Parliament.
The president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Mrs Maryam Rajavi was the keynote speaker at the meeting. In her speech, Mrs Rajavi said,
"Eight years ago, I said here, from the West, we seek neither money, nor weapons. We only want the West to be neutral between the Iranian people and the Resistance on the one hand and the ruling regime on the other. I said that we and our nation have the necessary wherewithal to bring change to Iran and if external obstacles, especially the terrorist designation, are removed, the third option, namely change by the Iranian people and Resistance will become reality...now, I have again come to the seat of European democracy to say, now that after the removal of this label in the UK, the European Union and France, this designation has also been revoked in the US, our people and Resistance's message is that from the West, we seek neither money, nor weapons. We only seek a definitive end to the policy of appeasement with the criminal rulers of Iran and the recognition of the Iranian people's resistance against religious fascism and for freedom and democracy."
This step is indispensable and the sole satisfactory answer to the clerical rulers who are striving for nuclear weapons. In itself, it is the true answer to terrorism, fundamentalism and a regime which, as the primary supporter and partner of Bashar Al-Assad, is directing the daily massacres in Syria.
Mrs Rajavi added,
"My message is that by learning from the past, do not allow the mullahs to again prevent the adoption of correct and imperative policy and do not allow the mullahs to succeed in steering the West toward a policy that serves the interests of the religious dictatorship...Whether seeking to remedy its disastrous mistakes, which were to the detriment of the Iranian people, or whether attempting to preserve global peace and security, you must respect the desire of the Iranian people for regime change. Time is running out and the international community cannot waste another eight years."
There is no doubt that the Iranian people and their Resistance movement will bring down the regime of velayat-e faqih (Absolute Rule by the Clergy) in Iran. Nevertheless, European and US policy could impede or expedite this trend.
For this reason, the recognition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran that holds the key to change in Iran is of the essence as never before. Any delay would exact an even greater price from the Iranian people and world peace and security later on.
The NCRI wants a free Iran committed to the provisions of the UN Charter, where people's vote has primacy, a republic based on separation of church and state, gender equality, peace and friendship with regional countries and a non-nuclear Iran.
In the new era, which began with the revocation of the PMOI's terrorist designation in the United States, the adoption of a new policy by the European Union and the US vis-à-vis the Iranian regime is an inevitable imperative.
Thus, the Iranian people and their Resistance urge EU and US leaders, especially EU Foreign Policy Chief, Baroness Ashton, and Secretary Clinton to pursue a policy that would:
First, halt any appeasement of or concessions to the religious dictatorship ruling Iran;
Second, safeguard the rights, security and protection of the residents of Ashraf and Liberty; and
Third, recognize the Iranian people's Resistance movement.