Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-12-Speech-3-084"
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"en.20051012.13.3-084"2
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".
Madam President, Iran’s technical capacity to use nuclear energy is causing the rest of the world to sit up and take notice. Apart from the serious environmental objections to nuclear energy, there is no reason why countries in Asia should not raise their level of technology to that of Europe and North America. It only becomes an issue if that knowledge is misused to issue military threats to others.
In this case, this risk is real, because the regime that is in power in Iran owes its support to a militant minority that has driven out, and excluded, other political powers from that country. This minority does not only want a theocratic system in Iran – one that is, among other things, characterised by the disadvantaged position of women and the widespread practice of capital punishment – but also throughout the rest of the world. Furthermore, it intensely dislikes freedom of association, freedom of opinion, equal access to political power and scope for individual choice. They justify their regime of terror with their own interpretation of the will of God, which makes them immune to rational argument.
The political opposition has been banished to Europe and elsewhere. A democratic Europe must take this opposition seriously. Attempting to delay the nuclear threat by means of a temporary compromise with the regime in Iran should never be at the expense of our solidarity with this opposition. This opposition is our hope for a better Iran in future, where people enjoy the freedoms and rights that we in Europe take for granted. Support for that opposition can, in time, change the situation. That is why parts of that opposition, such as the People’s Mujahedeen, should not be on the terror list.
A possible military intervention, however, similar to that initiated by the Americans against Iran’s neighbours, Iraq and Afghanistan, in recent years, would give the people in Iran the feeling that their country is being threatened from outside and should therefore be defended. That would only play into the hands of the fundamentalist regime.
That is why Europe’s choice must be clear. It must pledge its solidarity with the democratic opposition both within Iran and outside it, and emphatically reject any military intervention by outsiders."@en1
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