Verbatim report of proceedings

Thursday, 3 April 2014 - Brussels

Situation in Iran (debate)

  Derk Jan Eppink (ECR). - Mr President, some people think that President Rouhani is a moderate. I disagree. In 2013, 660 executions took place in Iran, two thirds under the authority of Mr Rouhani. He also appointed Mr Aboutalebi as the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations. He was one of the students who seized the American Embassy in 1979, so he is a terrorist. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr[nbsp ]Zarif, recently laid a wreath at the grave of Mr Mughniyeh, who masterminded the bombing of US marines in Lebanon in 1983. At the same time, Camp Liberty is under siege and nothing is being done about it.

These are not really signs of confidence-building measures. Iran is determined to continue enrichment and the development of missile technology to construct a nuclear weapon. We are not stopping the process, but just delaying it. We have to be much stricter. Now Iran is fooling us, but perhaps people here want to be fooled in order to continue day-dreaming. I wish High Representative Ashton all the best in the future, but I do hope her name will not enter history as the Chamberlain of our times.