Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Al Arabiya English
In the United Kingdom, a referendum was held to decide whether to stay or withdraw from the European Union. The outcome of the referendum divided the British society.
Even though the gap between proponents and opponents was narrow, and a group of people expressed regret about the verdict, the British government and EU member-states accepted the result, which amounts to showing respect for democracy.
Now, the British Prime Minister has decided to hold an early election in which British people will choose their representatives. All the parties, even the extreme right-wing, will take part in this election.
We also observed Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of a right-wing party, reaching the second round of elections in France. People who are disillusioned and disappointed with the policies of Gaulish right and centre-left socialists have turned to alternatives that reflect the polarization of the society, which shows the defeat of the established parties.
In addition to unemployment and poverty, insecurity and economic hardship, the majority of people in France also feels the effects of fundamentalism and terrorism.
The Iran parallel
In total contrast, the Mullahs of Tehran are misusing religion to send terror to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Afghanistan in what is widely described as an ill-advised and bankrupted policy.
In the British and French elections, the votes of people will determine who enters 10 Downing Street or the Elyse presidential palace. However, in Iran Guardian Council of mullahs chooses the president through a sham election. What we are witnessing these days has no resemblance to the elections in any other country in the world.
An Iranian wrote on Facebook an open letter to Guardian Council highlighting the rejection of a majority of presidential candidates including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was the closest to Khamenei during his eight years of presidency. The users of this social network found this letter very interesting and supported it.
Maintaining this façade is not easy for the Iranian government. One of the candidates approved by Khamenei and the Guardian Council is Ibrahim Reisi who is reported to have been involved in the massacre of thousands of political prisoners by members of death squad.
Ahmad Montazeri, the son of Khomeini’s successor Ayatollah Montazeri, has released an audio file in social network and has been summoned by the court in this regard.
In this audio message, Ayatollah Montazeri purportedly addresses nthe members of the death squad including Ebrahim Reisi (a candidate) and Pourmohammadi (Rouhani’s Minister of Justice).
The TV debates
In the first round of TV debates we witnessed 20 questions in which Hassan Rowhani could not defend his government’s records. More than 2,000 public executions have been carried out under his name. However, none of these debates crossed red lines aware of the fact that mentioning of any fundamental problems could lead into uprising.
Another candidate in the Iranian election is Tehran’s Mayor, Mohammad Ghalibaf. Regarding him, some Iranians say: “he has eaten Tehran; now he intends to eat Iran”. He even reportedly confessed that all funds are managed by 4 percent and 96 percent of the people are deprived of it.
During this debate, it was also confessed that 16 million rural farming families have moved to big cities due to loss of work, environmental pollution and wrong policies of the government. All of their rights of citizenship are being violated or ignored including healthcare, housing and education facilities. Yet the government publishes false statistics.
Another candidate in this debate is Ishaq Jahangiri, deputy of Rowhani, who is admitting that attack on the British Embassy was a state action and one of the prominent figures of the attack is now a member of the campaign of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf from the Khamenei faction.
“We have not forgotten about seven hundred billion oil money that is not clear in where it has been disappeared?” We have not forgotten that European were very concerned about boycott of the mullahs’ regime and claimed that those sanctions will hurt the Iranian people,” he is reported to have said.
It has become clear that they were worried about damaging the corrupted mullahs not the Iranian people. West protested the result of a referendum in Turkey but is welcoming this shameful election. What is the reason behind this dichotomy? The sham election has been boycotted by all opposition parties in Iran including six Kurdish political parties and people from all segments of the society.
But this sham election is being publicized by a media like BBC Persian or some of the supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi as that they do not have the courage to criticize Khamenei for their leader’s imprisonment.
Instead of attacking Khamenei, they target the opposition parties for paving the way for the killings such as the massacre of 1988. They are pretending that this sham election is similar to elections in democratic countries.
Khomeini’s legacy
Their conflicts with Khamenei is over Khomeini’s legacy and is a power struggle. We are also hearing that Donald Trump is asking the Europeans to further sanctions and apply Security Council resolutions against the regime that did not adhere to the spirit of nuclear deal.
However, we are also hearing that Europeans are sending messages to the Trump administration to halt further sanctions on Iran because this will hurt Rowhani.
But why are European governments blessing terrorist mullahs while they are torturing and executing Iranians everyday and even holding their citizens as hostages such as Nazanin Zaghari? Indeed, governments in the West have ignored the spirit of democracy.
Three telegram network users were recently sentenced to 36 years in prison for using the free network. At the same time, the regime is helping Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad, continue his crimes.
The consequences of Iran’s policies are suppression, exporting terrorism and efforts to access nuclear bombs to survive. We can see that terror is reaching cities of Europe and is victimizing innocent citizens of Iran, the Middle East and around the world.
Brazen regime
Obama administration’s tributes to the terrorists for releasing American hostages has made mullahs and its soldiers more brazen. Doing business with this regime is unreliable as it amounts to closing their eyes on the regime’s crimes. That is why they could not defeat terrorism.
Trade with a regime whose economy is in control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which is reportedly involved in terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking and triggering regional instability is not profitable but catastrophic.
Nevertheless, Iran with its unique geopolitical position can bring peace and stability to the Middle East and the world. This can be achieved only if the torchbearers of the regime are kicked out. Iran’s neighbors are tired of being intervened by the mullahs and its soldiers and screaming out loudly that the behavior of the Iranian regime is immutable. They have raised their voice after experiencing worse situations.
Here is a historic opportunity to extend sympathy and support the people of Iran to ensure that real democracy is achieved. The Iranian people has paid and will continue to pay the price of freedom.
