Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, February 23, 2021—Simultaneously with the meeting of European Foreign Ministers, the Iranian community in Belgium organized on Monday, February 22, a rally in the famous Schuman square of Brussels to call for the condemnation of the Iranian regime’s state terrorism. The protesters demanded the EU to adopt tough sanctions and to hold Tehran accountable for terrorist acts on European soil.
“We believe that after the verdict of the court in Antwerp, it is clear that the supreme leader Ali Khamenei gave the green light for the foiled attack in Paris. This is the moment that the EU must decide to close all Iranian embassies in Europe,” said Nobari Mehdi, a representative of the Iranian community in Belgium to Belga.
“For opponents of the Iranian regime, this shows yet again that the government is sponsoring terrorism. They also denounce the oppression of the country’s population,” reported Belgian RTBF Television.
The demonstrators also called on the European Union to close the regime’s embassies, which are centers of terrorism in Europe, and expel regime diplomats and agents from Europe. They chanted slogans in support of the Iranian people and their uprising against the regime and called for regime change by Iranian people and their just resistance movement.
Iranian protesters in Brussels – February 22, 2021.
On February 4, the Criminal court of Antwerp issued an historic verdict against Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based Iranian diplomat, to 20 years in prison for his direct involvement in a bombing plot against a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in 2018. His three co-conspirators received 15-18 years of prison each and were stripped of their Belgian citizenship.
Since the conviction of Assadi, the EU has remained silent. The protesters firmly criticized the EU’s inaction and demanded that it takes a strong stand against malign activities of the Iranian regime and to no longer remain in the background. Iranian protesters also demanded to list the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) as a foreign terrorist organization.
Different political figures and parliamentarians joined the rally to express their solidarity and support for the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy.
Paulo Casaca, a former member of the European Parliament, said it is the first time that a regime diplomat has been charged with terrorism in a European court. “Europe must end its appeasement and hold the regime accountable for terrorism on European soil and for violating the nuclear deal,” Casaca said.
Also, Serge de Patul from the Belgian Committee of Parliamentarians and Mayors for a Democratic Iran said in his speech at the rally that any relationship with the regime must be conditional to the halt of terrorist activities on the European soil.
In a statement, Belgian senator Mark Demesmaeker, chair of the committee Transversal Affairs expressed his support for the Iranian demonstrators in Brussels. “The silence of the EU over the recent conviction, in a Belgian court, of Assadollah Assadi, a high-ranking Iranian diplomat and his collaborators on charges of terrorism and for planning to bomb the Free Iran gathering organized by the National Council of resistance in Paris in June 2018 is dangerous,” Mark Demesmaeker said.
He also added that considering that the attack is not the first of its kind, and it reflects the apparently deliberate neglect of policy advice that had been offered in previous weeks by dozens of European lawmakers and former government officials.
“End Iranian Government Terrorism on European Territory”
Mark Demesmaeker pointed out that on December 3, 2020, on the second day of the Antwerp trial against the failed bombing of the Iranian regime by its diplomat Assadollah Asadi and his accomplices, about 250 parliamentarians from 20 European countries issued a statement. In this statement, entitled “End Iranian Government Terrorism on European Territory,” they referred to the vast amount of evidence and documents discovered and disclosed by police officers and the Belgian and German security services.
