[MEP Tunne Kelam] Subject: Demonstrations in Iran Date: 30 December 2017

eppgroup.eu ^ | 31.12.2017 - 00:45 | Tunne Kelam

[GonzoII]

Tens of thousands of Iranians are demonstrating in different cities all over Iran against dismal living conditions, against lack of hope for any real improvement, be it economical, social or political.

This is a clear indication that people cannot be endlessly misled and intimidated. Iranian youth and women, who are suffering most from absence of perspective for dignifed life and work, are among the first to challenge the clerical dictatorship. The current demonstrations show also a different quality in putting the blame directly on the highest leaders, on the president Rouhani and supreme religius leader Khamenei. It is remarkable that Iranian citizens perceive the connection between Tehran's continued military expansion in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and their dramatically worsening living standards at home.

Today, it is time to finally draw lessons from the massive demonstrations against the 2009 election fraud, where the Western democracies lacked resolve to side with the Iranian people.

Today, the hopes that the 2015 nuclear deal and the subsequent ending of sanctions would stimulate Iranian peaceful development and benefit its people, have clearly proved illusionary. Today, it is time for the EU to face the realities of the Iranian dictatorship that has brought misery to its citizens, continues jailing and hanging them on record scale, is engaged in military expansion all over the Middle East, boosts its ballistic missile program and collaborates closely with the North Korean dictator. Western clinging to desparate belief in "reformed" and "moderate" dictators is nothing less than appeasement.

Taking the side of Iranian people who have suffered for 38 years under one of the cruelest regimes in the world is not just a condescending gesture of humanitarian nature. It is equally about the values and credibility of the EU and its future.

Tunne Kelam Member of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee

[GonzoII]

"Western clinging to desparate belief in "reformed" and "moderate" dictators is nothing less than appeasement. "

[alloysteel]

Sanctions against Iran must be working, if there is this much economic distress going on in the streets of the cities and villages of Iran. In a scramble to cover the ongoing terrorist operations and fueling the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, among others, the people at home are shortchanged, as the wealth and material are still being diverted to the war and terrorism fronts.

Much like was happening within Nazi Germany as the Allies began closing in on the German homeland, cutting off all outside supplies. There were widespread revolts and uprisings then, too, put down ruthlessly by the Waffen-SS, with hangings from lampposts of German citizens who were caught up in the dragnet, and summarily executed.

And the Nazi program had brought so much prosperity to the German folk in the early years of the war. The theft of goods and services from the neighboring countries served them well.

At first.