European-led group with report critical of Iran personally tells leaders policies have 'failed'

A top member of the international group created to help bring democracy to Iran had strong words Friday about the Middle East nation when presenting the it most recent report in Rome. 

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is a terrible dictatorship," group member and retired Spanish politician Aeljo Vidal-Quadras told Just the News in presenting the International Committee of Justice report in Italy's Senate. 

Iran's government is a theocratic republic guided by Islamic principles. The U.S. government considers Iran a "dangerous regime" and the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism but supports the Iranian people’s struggle for human rights, democracy, and freedom.

The report, titled “Europe’s Failed Policy Towards Iran,” calls for a dramatic recalibration of the west’s strategy of engagement with Iranian leadership, suggesting international pressure that would lead to the overthrow of the Iranian regime.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is a terrible dictatorship,” Vidal-Quadras also told Just the News. “The appeasement policies the west has used with Iran for 40 years have failed. They’re counterproductive. It’s time for governments to take a strong stance against the Iranian ayatollahs.”

The group was formed in 2008 as an informal collective of EU parliamentarians to help bring democracy to Iran.

Vidal-Quadras, one of the founders of Spain’s rightwing nationalist political party Vox, is in a unique position to comment on the topic. Just over a year ago, he was shot in the face in Madrid in an event believed to be in retaliation for his vocal support for the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), leading Iranian dissident groups.

Since the ISJ report was first presented in Brussels in September, the 79-year-old Vidal-Quadras has worked to call attention to its findings. 

Before arriving in Rome, he met with lawmakers in Berlin, London, and Paris. Further international presentations are being set up in the coming weeks and months.

“We are hopeful of change because there is a new European Commission taking office this week,” he said. “That means there will be a new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is someone who can have a big impact on European policy toward the Iranian regime.”

The new office holder will be Kaja Kallas, the most high-profile figure to hold the position to date. 

Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, was vocal in her criticism of Iran during her confirmation hearing in early November, saying that the country – along with Russia, North Korea, and China – represented a grave challenge to what she called the “rules-based world order.” She said she believed the European Union should jointly respond to these threats “without losing an inch of who we are.”

There is also speculation that changes in the United State could also help lead to a change in policy toward Iran. 

In his first term, GOP president Donald Trump pulled out of the Obama-negotiated Iran Nuclear Deal, an international agreement criticized by those calling for a hardline stance against Iran. 

According to MEK and NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi, Trump’s return to the White House in January could be something of a last straw for an Iran on the verge of collapse – amid increasing instability at home and pressure from abroad. Another reported factor is Iran’s warmongering in the Middle East through its proxies has has weakened the regime. 

However, whether such a situation is play is speculative and remains to be seen, but to some Iran appears to already be stepping back from its bellicose language toward the west in the wake of Trump's victory.

Vidal-Quadras said that if he had the ear of the EU’s Kallas or Trump’s security advisors, he’d lobby them to adopt a few specific priorities to weaken Iranian leadership. He says countries should formally designate the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, pull their diplomats from Tehran and close Iranian embassies in their territories, financially isolate the country by expanding sanctions and cutting off all trade, and officially condemn what he called the “atrocious” human rights abuses in the country.

“We must dramatically increase diplomatic and political pressure in all the international fora,” Vidal-Quadras said. “We have not seen anything as brutal as Iran since Nazi Germany and Stalin in the Soviet Union. The regime must be stopped.”