Last Friday, November 27, in Antwerp, Belgium judicial authorities presented their case at the first public audience in the trial of Assadollah Assadi, Iranian diplomat, European Union designated terrorist, and senior member of a EU-designed terrorist organisation, the ‘Directorate for Internal Security of the Iranian Ministry for Intelligence and Security’. Three other members of the terrorist cell directed by Assadi were also indicted.
In a remarkable and unprecedented investigation developed by European anti-terrorist forces of several member states, Assadi and his accomplices’ attempt to bomb a mass rally promoted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in the outskirts of Paris was prevented on the very day of the planned attack – June 30, 2018.
The rally, which according to its organisers gathered tens of thousands of people, was witnessed by many politicians and civil society leaders across the globe, including several European parliamentarians.
The evidence provided by the judicial authorities – resulting from a long period of vigilance over the terrorist cell, and largely reproduced in the press – is staggering, and allowed said authorities to conclude that: (1) the attack was commanded by the Iranian authorities in Tehran; (2) it had been prepared for a long period of time; (3) NCRI Madame President Maryam Rajavi was the main target, but the intention was to cause as many casualties as possible.
This impressive amount of evidence led the Council of the European Union, on January 2019, to add the above-mentioned Iran state division and the main defendant to the list of senior leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards already designated by the European Union as terrorists.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country in the world which has branches and officials of its government designated as terrorists by the European Union, which is not surprising given the gravity and scale of its actions against human lives on European soil.
In the face of this reality, European citizens have the right to expect from European diplomats a coordinated action with European anti-terrorist authorities – making it clear to the Iranian regime that its terrorist activities on European soil are not tolerated.
However, this has not been the case. Quite on the contrary, Europeans have been confronted with successive actions and declarations by European diplomats downplaying the Iranian theocracy’s suppression of its citizens, as well as the Iranian aggression and terrorist actions outside its borders. Sometimes facts are so twisted that the regime’s leaders are presented as victims – which seriously undermines European policy aiming to safeguard the lives of European citizens.
To this day, the thousands of European and foreign citizens whose lives were threatened by the Iranian theocracy terrorist machine in Paris in 2018 are yet to read or hear a word of condemnation from European diplomacy regarding this heinous crime.
History has abundantly proven that Iranian regime leaders respect nothing other than bare force, and that they take any appeasement as a sign of weakness inviting them to carry further aggressions.
The will to trade civilian hostages for Iranian terrorists has yet and again failed – only leading the regime to persist in its policies.
For the European voice to be understood in Tehran it is fundamental that European diplomats do not appear to undermine the work of European antiterrorist authorities.
Europe must get its act together to be heard and taken seriously around the globe – and most importantly, to face the threat of fanatic terrorism on its own soil.
Brussels, 2020.12.01
