4 November 2004 Edition

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European nuclear offer to Iran's mullahs slammed

Iranian opposition group, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), has slammed a European offer of incentives aimed at getting the Tehran regime to stop uranium enrichment, saying it included a promise that the EU would continue viewing the guerrilla Mujahedin-E-Khalq or MEK (the People's Mujahedin) as a terrorist organisation.

The People's Mujahedin seeks to topple Iran's ruling Islamic establishment by force.

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran said the text — formally presented to Iran last month by Britain, France, and Germany — "makes a mockery of the war against terrorism."

European negotiators included a reference to the Iranian resistance group in their last-chance offer of a trade deal and peaceful civilian nuclear technology to entice Iran to give up enrichment and avoid the looming threat of UN sanctions.

The document, presented to an Iranian delegation in Vienna, included a pledge that the Europeans "would continue to regard the MEK as a terrorist organisation".

PMOI Secretary General Mojgan Parsaii condemned a "disgraceful deal to suppress the PMOI and overlook human rights abuses in Iran", which she added "is a flagrant crime against humanity and an unveiled support for terrorism and fundamentalism. The masterminds of this document have set a new record in sacrificing all international human rights values and declarations since World War II.

"This deal is a flagrant crime against humanity, an unveiled support for terrorism and fundamentalism and a despicable encouragement of a regime which has been condemned 50 times so far by the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Commission and whose record is marked by 120,000 political executions.

"In addition, it sends this message to the people of Iran that they should not look for democracy and human rights in their country and instead should put up with the status quo.

"The danger of replacing the regime with a democratic alternative that includes the People's Mojahedin Organisation as its pivotal force has been indirectly acknowledged," noted Parsaii. "As the mullahs say, the best reward in the list of the offered incentives is the suppression of the Mojahedin and continuing to regard them as terrorists."

The PMOI has urged the international community to stop blacklisting the group.

Last month, the organisation, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said it had uncovered more evidence that Iran's nuclear activities are broader than it has publicly admitted. It alleged that Iran has a hidden uranium processing plant near Bandar Abbas, a major industrial port in southern Iran that is home to a missile production facility, an oil refinery, and a large thermal power plant.

Two years ago, the Iranian opposition was the first to make public that Iran was running a secret uranium enrichment programme.


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