Silence from Europe to Protests in Iran is Shameful!

For the last six days massive protests have taken place throughout dozens of cities in Iran against the repressive radical Islamic regime in Iran, we have heard very little to nothing from the leaders of the major European countries or the European Union’s representatives in support of the protestors. There has been silence from Europe’s leaders instead of speaking out in support of average Iranians seeking freedom, human rights and a democratic government for their country. The silence from Europe’s leaders is almost deafening and speaking volumes that the European Union countries are siding with the ayatollahs that are cracking down on the peaceful protestors after more than 20 have been killed, hundreds injured and hundreds more arrested! However when one looks at the numerous economic advantages and billions of dollars in trade the European nations enjoy with the current regime of the ayatollahs in Iran, it is indeed no surprise they would not wish to bite the hand that feeds them.

(EU’s representative Mogherini joyfully smiling with Iran’s foreign minister Zarif during her 2017 trade trip to Iran)

Ever since the late 1980s until today the vast majority of European countries have enjoyed robust trade and economic ties with Iran under the ayatollah’s rule. Europe has also benefited from buying cheaper Iranian oil than from the Arab countries. After the 1979 revolution in Iran, the U.S. sanctioned Iran and refused to either sell any goods to the regime nor buy its commodities. This is where the Europeans gladly stepped in to sell their commercial aircraft, machinery, appliances, electronics and other commodities to the Iranian market. The European Union has repeatedly looked the other way when Iran has had one of the world’s worse human rights records and the second highest execution rates in the world behind China. In recent years the European Union begrudgingly accepted to place sanctions on Iran only when it was exposed the regime had a covert nuclear weapons program. Yet in 2015 European countries and the former Obama administration rushed to put together up a ridiculous “Iran Nuclear Deal” which paved the path for the Iranian regime to eventually get nuclear weapons in only a decade. Why would the Europeans come to such an insane agreement you ask? The answer is very simple…money! The Europeans wanted the billions of dollars from the Iranian regime’s state-owned or semi-state owned businesses to continue buy their goods and services. They would prefer to enjoy economic growth from a tyrannical dictatorial regime than to stop such a regime from potentially gaining weapons of mass destruction.

Just within the last year alone we have seen countless foreign ministers and business leaders from the European countries travel to Iran to secure billion dollar contracts for everything from industrial factories, to renovation of Iran’s oil infrastructure, to new commercial aircrafts and other goods. Many of the Iranian companies signing the deals with the European companies have been either state-owned, semi-state owned or privately owned by the ruling ayatollahs in Iran or members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In essence, the clerics as well as the military elite in Iran that are in charge and who have oppressed the Iranian populations, have solely benefited from the business they have done with Europe. Perhaps most shameful has been the European Union’s Federica Mogherini, the representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the EU who within the last two years has traveled to Iran many times smiling for the cameras and giving her “official seal of approval” through handshakes with the Iranian regime’s officials. What is even more ridiculous has been Mogherini even wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf during her visits to Iran so as to “not offend” the ayatollahs she has come to do business with! Shamefully Mogherini and Europe’s other leaders have not blinked an eye or even raised the issue of basic freedoms being denied average people in Iran or the regime’s crack down on journalists and voices of opposition in the country. They have shamefully collaborated with the regime’s clerics purely for their own economic advantage. And so today as innocent protestors in Iran are suffering crackdowns by the Iranian regime, the European Union again remains silent about the plight and struggle of the protestors for true regime change.

(EU’s representative Mogherini meeting with Iran’s parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani in Iran during her 2017 visit).

What is perhaps most shameful about the European support for the current Iranian regime is the fact that Europe has endured in the 20^th century both the horrific oppression of Nazism and Communism. The Europeans know very well the horror of living in a totalitarian state where they have no voice, no freedom, no economic advancement to improve their lives and have also lived in constant fear that the state’s secret police could arrest them at any moment for any reason without due process of law. The Europeans have experienced living under tyrants and being beaten, arrested and even executed for raising any voices of opposition to those ruling them with an iron fist. Therefore it is truly shameful that the European leaders and people of Europe, who had similar experiences to Iranians today, have failed to publicly and vocally condemn the Iranian clerical tyrants who are having innocent people arrested, beaten and killed in Iran!

Likewise what is hypocritical about the European Union’s lack of support for protestors in Iran today is the fact that they have the audacity to criticize and lecture Israel day in and day out about supposed “human rights” violations against the Palestinians. Yet we do not hear a peep out of these same European leaders when it comes to the Iranian regime’s past human rights violations against the people of Iran nor the regime’s crackdown on the protestors in the streets of Iran today! Again they say nothing to the Iranian ayatollahs because CASH is king and as long as they can do business with the ayatollahs and the IRGC in Iran, Europe will always remain loyal to the hand that feeds them instead of standing up for what is right for humanity. In the end, history has shown time and time again that no dictatorial regime can survive forever and must eventual crumble for many reasons… this same fate is slowly but surely coming true for the Islamic Republic of Iran! When the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran eventually collapses, history will not be kind to the people of Europe nor their leaders who sat on the sidelines quietly instead of supporting the innocent people of Iran protesting in the streets for a democratic government and real freedom.