Iranian regime, a step too far to silence opposition.

On the occasion of the November 4, the occupation of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and in a speech which was published in the Keyhan newspaper in Tehran and later disclosed to the Iranian media, Colonel General, Masoud Jazayeri, Cultural Vice President of the Islamic Republic Armed Forces warned the opposition outside Iran that most of the elements who are opposed to the election results and who campaign outside the borders have been identified and in due time will be dealt with accordingly.

 He indicated that the Islamic Republic is able to seriously confront the out- of- border opposition and will not allow a ‘Velvet Coup’ to materialise.

In a similar threat, Esmael Moghadam, Commander of the Police Forces warned ‘Those Iranians outside who disrespect the Islamic Republic laws’ will be confronted accordingly!

The Revolutionary Guard’s official website Basirat identified 5 tendencies outside the country who are ‘the Outside Head of Green Coup’. These five tendencies are: secular intellectuals, student activists, artists, royalists and Mojahedin Khalgh and other anti-revolutionary groups. 

Revolutionary Guard Political Bureau has specifically named Shirin Ebadi, Mohsen Kadivar, Ataollah Mohajerani, Abdolkarim Soroush, Mohsen Sazgar and Mohsen Makhmalbaf as the leaders of the Green Movement outside the country. These people along with the rest of the Iranians outside Iran who are supporting the opposition inside the country against the election-coup in June 2009 and the brutal suppression that followed are now the target of a government that knows no boundaries for its ambition to stay in power.   

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Iranian regime assassinated more than 40 people outside Iran. Shahpour Bakhtiyar, the last prime minister during the Shah, Dr Ghasemlou, leader of the main Kurdish political party, Abdolrahamn Boroumand, a respected politician, Kazem Rajavi, a lawyer and Fereidun Farokhzad, a well-known artist were among the many who were savagely assassinated in France, Switzerland and Germany. In addition to that, the Iranian regime’s hand in the bombing of the Jewish centre in Buenos Ayres has been verified by the Argentinean government.  

 After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and as an Islamic regime took the power and tried to change the political, cultural and social fabrics of the Iranian society by imposing harsh laws and the imprisonment, torture and execution of thousands of those who opposed it, some three to four million Iranians left the country and scattered around the globe. Over years, most of these people and their families have assimilated in the indigenous population and have acquired dual nationality. That means that the Iranian regime is not only breaching all international laws and protocols by threatening Iranians outside Iran’s borders but also threatens the nationals of other countries,       

There are for example about 150,000 Iranians in the UK, most of which are British nationals. Nevertheless, they still care for their home country and are very sad to watch innocent Iranian women, men, old, young; student and civil society members whose only dream is a free and democratic country are so brutally suppressed. The British/Iranians in the UK are campaigning to support the people inside and this is their democratic right which is given to all citizens in democratic countries. The Iranians are very alarmed by these recent direct threats made by the highest Iranian Army generals and believe that as the regime is unable to control the growing opposition inside, it might dispatch assassins to other countries including the UK which they call ‘Centre of a British-American plot’ to overthrow the Islamic regime, in a desperate attempt to silence the inside. We urge the British government to take these threats seriously and provide protection for those British/ Iranians whose lives might be in danger.

We also call on the international community to condemn the Iranian government for such outrageous threats against the nationals of other countries which is against all international laws and protocols which Iran is a signatory.