220 MEPs demand access to Iran nuclear sites

It said: "Iran needs to adhere to all UN Security Council resolutions with regard to its nuclear program and it should respond to all outstanding IAEA questions while allowing intrusive inspections of all its military and non-military sites whether declared or undeclared.

"We are extremely worried about Iran’s despicable human rights records, recent arrest of women political activists and the sudden increase of executions especially after the preliminary nuclear agreement in April."

Gérard Deprez, chair of the Friends of a Free Iran in European Parliament, added: "What is happening in Iran today is totally incompatible with our democratic principles in Europe, therefore any expansion of relationship with Iran must be conditioned to a clear improvement of human rights."

"Iran is at the heart of the crisis in this region and not part of the solution. If fundamentalism and extremism is to be uprooted in this region, Iran’s destructive influence and interference should end."

The MEPs also stressed support for Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, and her vision of an Iran which is 'a democratic pluralistic republic based on universal suffrage, freedom of expression, abolition of torture and death penalty, separation of church and state, a non-nuclear Iran, an independent judicial system, rights for minorities, peaceful coexistence in the region, gender equality and commitment to Universal Declaration of Human Rights'.

They also called for protection of Iranian dissidents who are held in prison-like conditions in Camp Liberty in Iraq.

The statement added: "Protection of Camp Liberty residents must be secured and ensured by Iraq, United States and the United Nations. Camp Liberty needs to be recognized as a refugee camp and its siege, in particular its medical blockade, must be revoked in its entirety."

The signatories of the statement include 4 vice-presidents of the European Parliament as well as 16 Committee and Delegation chairs.

IranFocus