Prof. Dr. Josep Borrell
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy
European External Action Service Building
9A Rond Point Schuman
1046 Brussels
17th November 2023
Dear High Representative,
You may recall a letter we wrote to you on 4th November 2022 in which we informed you that the International Committee ‘In Search of Justice’ (ISJ), had been blacklisted by the Iranian regime and sanctions had been applied against our president Alejo Vidal-Quadras and other members of the ISJ. We informed you at that time that several elected members of the European Parliament had also been blacklisted by the Iranian regime in this way. All of us, to whom these sanctions apply, have farcically been accused by the regime of organising terrorism and violence in Iran. In our letter to you we warned that given the violent history of the clerical regime, we were deeply concerned that these accusations could trigger attempts on the lives of the individuals concerned and we therefore sought your guidance on what actions you intended to take to protect our security. I regret to say that we received no such guidance.
You will no doubt now be aware of the fact that on Thursday 9th November this year, there was an attempted assassination of Alejo Vidal-Quadras in broad daylight, on the streets of Madrid. Two men on a motorcycle approached him as he walked through the Salamanca neighbourhood. One of the men dismounted and shot Alejo in the face. Although seriously injured and hospitalised, fortunately Alejo has survived. He is under heavy police guard recuperating from surgery in hospital. Alejo has himself told the Spanish police that he is certain the would-be assassins were acting on behalf of the Iranian regime. There has been widespread media coverage of this tragic crime.
Some Spanish media, citing police sources, have reported that the assailants in the assassination attempt may have been promised a payment of 1.5 to 1.8 million dollars and that elements in the case suggest a possible link to Tehran. Meanwhile, state-run newspapers in Iran have ludicrously and predictably suggested that the Iranian democratic opposition movement itself, which Alejo has been supporting for two decades, was responsible.
As you are well aware, the Iranian regime uses its network of embassies to plan and perpetrate such terrorist acts, as was accurately documented in the jailing of Assadollah Assadi, a registered Iranian diplomat, for his central role in the plot to kill Mrs Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Had his bomb plot succeeded, hundreds of supporters of the NCRI, together with dozens of senior US and EU political figures, would have been maimed and murdered at the major rally near Paris that was targeted in 2018. In a shameful act of appeasement that wholly undermined European law, Assadi was sent back to a hero’s welcome in Tehran, in exchange for the release of a Belgian hostage. Once again, we warned that such acts of appeasement would simply provide impunity for the Iranian regime and lay the foundations for further acts of terror.
In the light of the recent attempt on the life of Alejo Vidal-Quadras and recalling the European Parliament’s vote where a 598 MEPs voted to blacklist the Islamic Revolutionary Guards corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, two pressing questions emerge. First, we must ask why, despite this clear mandate, the decisive step to officially designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity has not been taken. Second, we question why the European Union continues to engage with this terrorist regime under various pretexts. Furthermore, what measures will the EU implement to prevent the regime from using its diplomatic missions to plot terrorist activities against both Iranian dissidents and European politicians? Isn’t it time for the EU to move beyond mere symbolic gestures and adopt measures that are commensurate with the regime’s malign activities outside its borders, including on European soil?
We await your considered response to this urgent appeal.
STRUAN STEVENSON,
Chair ISJ Committee on the Protection of Political Freedoms in Iran
President of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14)
PAULO CASACA,
Member of the European Parliament (1999-2009) Chair of European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Founder and executive director of the “South Asia Democratic Forum”; founder of the international co-operation association ARCHumankind, ‘Alliance to Renew Cooperation among Humankind’.
CC:
Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament
Ursula von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission Charles Michel, President of the European Council
Charles Michel, President of the European Council
About ISJ:
International Committee In Search of Justice (ISJ) was initially formed in 2008 as an informal group of EU parliamentarians to seek justice for the Iranian democratic opposition. In 2014 it was registered as a non-profit NGO in Brussels expanding its membership beyond elected parliamentarians to former officials and other dignitaries with an interest to promote human rights, freedom, democracy, peace and stability.
P: ISJ, Rue d’Arlon 63, B-1040 Brussels – T: +32 2 400 1071 – E: Directorate@isjcommittee.com W: isjcommittee.com