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The sensible option on Iran

By Leanne Piggott - posted Monday, 23 January 2006


The PMOI has unquestionably resorted to armed resistance against the clerical regime. It has in the past assassinated officials of that regime. It has not targeted civilians. Significantly, in July 2001, the PMOI renounced any further use of violence and since that date has not engaged in any violent activity.

A recently published report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accusing the PMOI of human rights abuses has been comprehensively discredited by a large number of human rights lawyers and jurists, including Lord Slynn of Hadley, former Judge of the European Court of Justice, and by the findings of a 16-month-long investigation by the FBI and US State Department. Members of the European Parliament have published a lengthy report calling into question both the methodology and overt political nature of the HRW’s report. To date, HRW has made no response.

Maintaining the “terror tag” on the PMOI was part of what the EU agreed to do in return for Iran’s agreement to halt further development of its nuclear facilities. Now that Tehran has torn up the arrangement, all concessions previously made to it should be reversed. The PMOI should be taken off the black-list.

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By de-proscribing and supporting the largest of the Iranian opposition groups, western and other governments can hit the clerical dictatorship where it will hurt it the most - in the eyes of the politically savvy Iranian people. It would also send the clearest possible signal that the policy of appeasement is finished. Energetic efforts are now underway with the British and other European parliaments to de-proscribe the PMOI. Australia should do likewise.

The idea of regime change in Iran through “people power” is far from fanciful. The Iranian people have done it before.

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First published in The Australian on January 19, 2006.



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About the Author

Dr Leanne Piggott lectures in Middle East Politics at the University of Sydney and is director of Academic Programs of the Centre for International Security Studies. She is the author of A Timeless Struggle: Conflict in Land of Israel/Palestine (forthcoming, Science Press).

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