OUTLOOK AND CHALLENGES FOR IRAN, HOW SHOULD THE EUROPEAN UNION RESPOND?

Under this title, on September 14 in Strasbourg, Zarzalejos chaired a meeting attended by numerous MEPs from different political groups and in which Mohammad Mohaddessin, president of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, (NCRI), participated as rapporteur.

Zarzalejos, co-chair of the Friends for a Free Iran group, lamented that, a year after Ebrahim Raisi took power in Iran, “the worst expectations we would have had in terms of ruthless repression have been fulfilled.” He especially highlighted the situation of women and young people who participate in the daily protests against the mullahs and the case of four Catholics who have been sentenced this summer to prison terms of between 6 and 10 years for practicing the Christian faith on their own homes.

During the meeting, the deputies also discussed the regime’s nuclear weapons program, the worrying results of the investigation carried out by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran’s dubious intentions to put an end to its nuclear program and reach a new nuclear deal.

The alignment with Russia in the war against Ukraine and the support that the regime is providing to Putin was another of the issues under discussion.