Brussels, 02/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 1 June, 221 MEPs from all the different political groups from the 28 member states called for the human rights situation in Iran to be taken more into account “in all relations with this country”.
In their response to the initiative of the president of the EP's “Friends of a Free Iran” group, Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium), MEPs (including the four vice presidents and sixteen committees and delegations) called for “Iran to put an end to executions, release political prisoners, stop the repression of women and respect the rights and freedoms of the people”.
MEPs also denounce Iran's interference in the region and emphasise that the country must comply with all the resolutions of the UN Security Council with regard to its nuclear programme. They say that Iran should also “answer all questions from the IAEA and allow thorough inspections of declared and non-declared military and non-military sites”.
MEPs are calling for the protection of the residents in the Liberty camp to be “ensured and guaranteed by Iraq, the US and United Nations… Camp Liberty must be recognised as a refugee camp and its encirclement, particularly the medical blockade, must be removed in full”. More than 3,200 members of the People's Mujahedeen, opponents of the reigning regime, are living in Camp Liberty.
MEPs are also using this appeal to express solidarity with the 10-point plan put forward by the Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, who chairs the National Council of Iranian Resistance. She has called for a democratic and pluralist republic based on universal suffrage, the freedom of expression, abolition of torture and the death penalty, separation of church and state, a non-nuclear Iran, an independent legal system, respect for minority rights, peaceful coexistence in the region, gender equality and a commitment to respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)