Iran

Tabled by Barbara Lochbihler, Isabelle Durant, Heidi Hautala, Emilie Turunen
On behalf of the Greens/EFA Group

The European Parliament,

- Having regard to the presidential elections of 12 June 2009 and the subsequent unrest in the Islamic Republic of Iran

- Having regard to the Resolution adopted by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of  27 November 2009 on the Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008) and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran

- Having regard to its former resolutions on Iran, notably the one of 7 May and 22 October 2009

- Having regard to the UN General Assembly resolution of 29 October 2009 on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,

- Having regard to the European Council Declaration of 10/11 December 2009

- Having regard to the 4th EP-Iran inter-parliamentary meeting to be held in Tehran from 9 to 11 January 2010 which was "postponed" by the Iranian side

On democracy and human rights:

A. Whereas there are serious indications that the June presidential elections have been marred by massive fraud which resulted in a large scale protest movement (called "Green movement") with mass demonstrations continuing over the past months inside and outside Iran

B. Whereas Iran's security forces, Revolutionary Guards, Basij militia, and police have reacted with a severe crack-down arbitrarily arresting thousands of peaceful protesters and dissidents, including students and academics, women's rights activists, trade unionists, lawyers, journalists, bloggers, clerics and prominent human rights defenders in a clear effort to intimidate critics and stifle dissent.

C. Whereas in addition security forces increased systematic harassment against members of religious minorities, such as Baha'is (whose entire 7 member former leadership has been arrested and is standing trial at the moment), and Sunnis, and carried out a campaign of arbitrary arrests and executions against Kurdish, Azeri, Baluch, and Arab civil society and political activists; whereas notably 21 Kurds are on death row at the moment

D. Whereas dozens of protesters have died as a result of attacks by security forces or in detention, and whereas thousands have been detained and some 300 activists remain in jail; whereas many of those arrested have reportedly been beaten and tortured, and in some cases sexually assaulted in prisons and secret detention facilities; whereas hundreds of Iranians implicated in the demonstrations have reportedly left the country out of fear of retaliation and are in desperate research of a safe haven in neighboring countries and in Europe

E. Whereas a parliamentary inquiry determined in early 2010 that Deputy Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was directly responsible for the deaths of at least three detainees from torture and neglect in Kahrizak prison

F. Whereas on 28 January 2010 Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour were executed, the first death sentences to be carried out which have been linked by official sources to the protest movement despite the fact that at least one of them, if not both, were already imprisoned at the time of the elections; and whereas reportedly at least nine people have been condemned to death for alleged links to the Green movement

G. Whereas from the beginning of August, the Judiciary staged mass show trials of hundreds of prominent reformers and activists, with apparently coerced TV confessions resulting in the condemnation of some to lengthy prison terms and even to death

H. Whereas on Dec. 27, the final day of the Ashura rites, Ali Mousavi, the 35-year-old nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main presidential contender in the June election, was shot to death and deliberately run over by a car in what carries all characteristics of a targeted assassination to serve as a strong warning to his uncle

I. Whereas on 8 January an assassination attempt was made on Mehdi Karroubi, the second prominent contender in the presidential elections, with two bullets being fired at his luckily bullet-proof car while Basij and Revolutionary Guards members assembled to protest Mr. Karroubi's presence in Qazvin 

I. Whereas physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi was assassinated in a bomb blast in what many believe was a warning to university professors and students because Mr. Mohammadi reportedly played an important role in getting 400 other scientists to publicly support the opposition leader Moussavi while encouraging his students to participate in peaceful demonstrations after the June election

J. Whereas in the aftermath of the mass demonstrations on December 27, Iran charged Western powers with fomenting the unrest, expelled two British diplomats, detained a Swedish diplomat for 24 hours and have been accusing German embassy personnel of actively supporting the protest movement 

K. Whereas in the aftermath of the elections, Iranian authorities have proceeded to large scale and frequent jamming of international radio and TV networks, many international websites, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as local opposition sites, and mobile-phone services in Tehran, thereby also causing transmission problems for networks in other Middle Eastern countries and even in Europe

L. Whereas European and Russian companies have been providing Iran with the necessary filtering and jamming devices, some of which might even represent some health risks for the population in the neighbourhood of the installations

On the nuclear issue

M. Whereas in breach of its obligation under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty Iran has clandestinely constructed an enrichment facility at Qom and only notified the IAEA of its existence long after its construction start; and whereas this violation of the rules opens up speculation into possible additional secret nuclear cites and further undermines the trust in Iranian assurances about the purely civil character of its nuclear programme  

N. Whereas in the interest to find a diplomatic solution to the issue of Iran's nuclear programme, The EU, the United States, China and Russia had proposed an agreement under the auspices of the IAEA to ship Iran's existing low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for processing into fuel rods to keep the Tehran Medical Research reactor running

O. Whereas since Iran has rejected this proposal debates are ongoing in the Security Council on re-enforced sanctions against Iran

On democracy and human rights:

1. Expresses its grave concern that the alleged widespread electoral fraud during Iran's presidential elections of June 2009 has not led to any serious investigation by Parliament or by the Supreme Leader and considers that the legitimacy of President Ahmedinejad´s term of office is seriously compromised despite his confirmation by Supreme leader Khamenei

2. Expresses its admiration and moral support for the courage of the tens of thousands of Iranians who continue to risk their professional careers and lives in demand of greater freedom and more democratic rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

3. Profoundly regrets that the Iranian government and Parliament are apparently incapable of responding in a constructive way to the justified demands of a young, educated and dynamic generation of Iranians who have seen their hopes for economic and social development stifled for too long

4. Is appalled by attempts of the government and/or the security forces to assassinate presidential candidates or members of their family and holds Supreme Leader Khamenei responsible for the safety of Iran's leading representatives of the opposition

5. Strongly condemns the systematic and brutal targeting of peaceful demonstrators and government critics by security forces, as well as the shutting down of newspapers and the forcible closure of offices of human rights organizations

6. Calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately free all those detained for peacefully exercising their rights to free expression, association, and assembly and to investigate and prosecute government officials and members of the security forces responsible for the killing, abuse, and torture of family members of dissidents, demonstrators and detainees

7. Calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the crack-down on workers' protests and to release the hundreds of workers and trade unionists who have been arrested soley for supporting the right to collective bargaining or in the exercise of legitimate trade union activities

8. re-iterates its calls on the Iranian judiciary to issue a moratorium on capital punishment and to unambiguously prohibit juvenile executions;

9. Calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately stop the practice of televised show trials and calls on the Iranian Parliament to amend Iranian law that allows the government to deny due process rights such as defendants' access to adequate legal representation;

10. Condemns the Iranian authorities' efforts to censor the print media and to jam radio, television and the internet, such as the BBC, and calls on the EU and its member states to address the international fall-out of these methods in the context of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)

11. Strongly criticizes international companies, and notably Nokia/Siemens for providing the Iranian authorities with the necessary censorship and surveillance technology, thus being instrumental to persecution and arrests of Iranian dissidents 

12. Sees Iranian allegations of interference in internal matters against personnel of European embassies in line with the frequently applied method by the authorities to stigmatize Iranian critics of the government by fabricating accusations of contacts to foreign governments and state treason in order to distract from the fact that the actual opposition movement is a genuine Iranian phenomenon  

13. Believes that a more democratic Iran could make the most important contribution to de-escalation in the Middle East and to a more cautious approach to the nuclear issue

On the nuclear issue:

14. Deeply regrets that the Iranian government has again rejected all attempts to compromise over the nuclear issue and regrets that the Ahmedinejad Government apparently wants to exploit the subject in order to defer attention from the internal crisis in the country

15. Supports the European Council's double track approach and all efforts to find a negotiated long-term solution to the Iranian nuclear issue; insists that possible additional sanctions in the context of the nuclear threat should exclude measures having negative consequences for the general Iranian population

16. Reiterates its opposition to the use of nuclear energy notably because of its inherent severe dual use risks for civil and military purposes and expresses its deep regret about the Nuclear Agreements concluded between the US, France and India, which defies the logic of the NPT by making India the only known country with nuclear weapons allowed to carry out nuclear commerce - including enrichment - with the rest of the world, despite not being a party to the Non Proliferation Treaty

17. Reiterates its call on the Iranian Parliament and government to ratify and implement the Additional Protocol and to fully implement the provisions of the Comprehensive Safeguard Agreement

18. In view of the inherent dual use options for military as for civil purposes of nuclear technology, expresses its grave concern over President Sarkozy's recent nuclear proliferation policy

19. Calls on Iran and those countries in the Middle East who consider investing in nuclear power, not to repeat the errors of many EU member countries to favour a dangerous and outdated technology; instead appeals to those countries to develop all options of modern renewable energy technologies, efficiency and conservation methods  

20. Re-iterates its call on all nuclear weapons states to make progressive steps to reduce nuclear warhead numbers, to phase out the role of nuclear weapons in security policy and support a nuclear weapon free zone Europe-Middle East

On future EU-Iran relations

21. Calls on the Council when discussing further sanctions against Iran, to consider enlarging the list of visa bans and asset freezes against certain individuals to include senior members of the security forces responsible for the repressive measures which have been taken in the aftermath of the contested presidential elections

22. Calls on Commission and Council to take immediate measures in order to ban the export of surveillance technology by European companies to governments and countries, such as Iran, where it could be instrumental for the violation of human rights

23. Calls on Commission and Council to devise additional measures in the context of the EIDHR and the European Immigration Policy in order to actively support the safety of Iranian human rights defenders  

24. Calls on Council and Commission to downscale member states' diplomatic representation in Tehran and - in view of the creation of the External Action Service - to rationalize EU and member States activities by establishing a European Union Delegation in Iran

25. Underlines the importance of the continuation of dialogue with Iran on all levels, and in particular with civil society; deplores that the Iranian side postponed the visit of the European Parliament delegation, expresses its hope that the Iranian government and Parliament review their position on direct contacts

26. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the High Representative of the CFSP, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the UNSC, the UN Commission on Human Rights, and the Government and Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran.