The following
speech was made by Struan Stevenson, President of the European Iraqi Freedom
Association (EIFA), in the Norwegian Parliament, Oslo, on Tuesday 4, 2017
concerning the dangerous and destructive role of the Islamic RevolutionaryGuards Corps (IRGC) in Middle East and throughout the world.
It is a great
privilege for me to be here today in the Norwegian parliament. As a Scot
I am always conscious of the fact that when I visit the Scottish Shetland
Islands, people tell me that their nearest railway station is Bergen in Norway!
Recent DNA surveys have discovered that almost half of all the people on
Shetland have Viking ancestry and that also holds true right down the West
coast of Scotland. With a name like Stevenson, I myself must have Viking ancestors,
so when I come to Norway I always feel as if we share an ancient bond. It is a
bond that may become even stronger when Scotland and the rest of the UK leave
the EU.
But I am
not here today to discuss our common heritage. The purpose of my visit is, as
you know, to discuss the dangerous and destructive role of the Iranian regime
in the Middle East and the systematic violation of human rights across the zone
that characterizes their aggressive attempts to spread Islamic fundamentalism.
Together with the National Council for Resistance in Iran (NCRI),
I held a press conference in the House of Commons in London at the beginning of
March, to mark the release of a comprehensive report detailing the belligerent activities
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and calling for their listing
as international terrorists. Our report showed how the IRGC and the body
responsible for extra-territorial operations - the Quds Force, are the main
vehicles for Iran’s aggressive expansionism in the Middle East. The IRGC has
for decades been carrying out terrorist attacks across the zone, including inSyria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.
Our report showed how the IRGC’s raison d'être is
exclusively summed up in domestic suppression and interference in the affairs
of other countries with the aim of expanding the Iranian regime's malign
influence. At our press conference we provided irrefutable evidence that the
IRGC now controls 90 of Iran’s 202 docks and ports, utilizing them for the
exclusive export of weapons and military personnel to zones of conflict in
which the IRGC are engaged throughout the Middle East. This is an outrage and a
crime against world peace.
But meddling in the
internal affairs of other countries and particularly exporting terrorism and
fundamentalism, represents a strategic pillar for Tehran’s survival and
endurance.
Our report showed
how the IRGC is meddling in 14 Muslim countries in the region. They are
directly involved in the hidden occupation of four countries in particular:
Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, although clearly this occupation is no longer
hidden in respect of Syria. In the summer of 2016, there were close to 70,000
Iranian regime proxy forces present in that country. The Iranian regime is also
directly meddling in the internal affairs of or plotting against the
governments of at least 8 countries: Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine,
Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan.
Our study also
demonstrated how the IRGC has set up terrorist affiliates or networks in at
least 12 regional countries, while its terrorist activities have hit 13
countries, with only Oman acting as a political intermediary for the regime,
helping it to circumvent sanctions. The IRGC is behind most of the brutal
Shi’ite militias rampaging through the predominantly Sunni provinces of Iraq,
massacring families and levelling cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and now Mosul in
the name of the war against Daesh (ISIS).
But as we know, the
Iranian regime's violence and crimes in other countries in the region and in
particular its suppression of Sunnis, carried out under the banner of Shi’ite
Islam, provoked a backlash, spawning the rise of groups like Daesh who seek to
establish an “Islamic Caliphate” while spreading their violence and brutality
to the four corners of the globe. It is a great irony that Iran has exploited
the campaign against Daesh as an opportunity to carry out their genocidal
crusade against the Sunnis, at the same time fooling the West into regarding
the theocratic regime as an ally, even coaxing the US into providing vital air
support.
Over the past six
years the world has witnessed in horror how the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad
has massacred his own people, while enjoying unlimited financial and military
support from Iran. It was the Iranian regime’s backing for Assad and for the
former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, two corrupt dictators who
repressed their own people and particularly their Sunni communities that
resulted in the rise of Daesh in the region.
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