Jan Zahradil (ECR). – Madam President, let’s be very clear and frank. We are dealing with a religious fundamentalist regime, or rather a dictatorship. We are dealing with part of an anti-Western coalition. We are dealing with a country which has very dangerous nuclear ambitions and with a country that is trying to become a regional power, which would shake the power balance in the region.
All that is contrary to our own European interests.
Now we can see that the people of Iran want a regime change and that in all 31 provinces in Iran people simply went out into the streets and called for that. The Revolutionary Guards subsequently killed dozens of people in the streets. They have arrested about 8 000, and some of those arrested have already been killed under torture. I have a picture of the very first person who was killed. So Iran is now in a very explosive situation and unfortunately the European Union is still following a failed policy of engagement. That must stop. The European Union has to speak up and we have to admit that the people of Iran, unfortunately, are hurt by the current policies of the European Union.
So, instead of having friendly relationships with Iranian officials, the EU should clearly take the side of the people of Iran who want change, including engagement with the best organised exile opposition organisation, the PMOI, rather than cutting ties with them. We should clearly say that we will not tolerate any executions of demonstrators under any excuse and, if the Iranian authorities continue, we must simply break off our relationships and again impose sanctions on Iran, for human rights violations.