Such a trip, under whatever pretext and amid a persisting wave of executions in Iran, including 14 executions in the past two weeks alone, is a blatant rebuff to human rights principles. The clerical regime will only take advantage of this visit to legitimize its atrocities against the Iranian people.
In an interview with the state television on Thursday, the mullahs' deputy Foreign Minister, Morteza Sarmadi said that the issue of the Mojahedin was also among the topics of discussion with the troika delegation.
Indeed, as the clerics' Foreign Minister has acknowledged time and again, imposing restrictions on Iranian refugees and Iranian Resistance's supporters in European countries has been the primary demand of the mullahs in such talks. This has been on top of Khatami's foreign policy agenda since he came to office.
That the mullahs' regime continues to desperately plead about this matter in every diplomatic contact with its international interlocutors is, first and foremost, a reflection of its utter weakness and inability to confront the growing activities of, and the public's enthusiasm toward, the Mojahedin and the Iranian Resistance inside the country.
Silence and inaction by European countries toward the Tehran regime's crimes and a continuing policy of appeasement, however, has so emboldened Iran's bloodthirsty rulers that instead of holding themselves accountable to their crimes, they have tried shamelessly to extend their suppression and censorship to European countries. The mullahs have demanded that these countries impose restrictions on the activities of Iranian refugees and the Iranian Resistance's supporters, activities which are in full conformity with the laws of these countries.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
May 22, 1999
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