BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, September 7, 2023, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
The detention of the Swedish official of the European Union for over 500 days as part of the Iranian regime’s ‘hostage diplomacy’ represents a blatant abuse of human rights and international law.
Regrettably, Tehran’s diplomatic belligerence was given a major boost when Asadollah Asadi, Tehran’s diplomat convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 20 years for a 2018 terrorist plot to bomb the Iranian Resistance’s annual summit in Paris, was returned to Iran in a hostage-for-terrorist swap earlier this year.
Asadi’s release, while betraying democratic values, set a dangerous precedent, signaling to Tehran that its use of hostage-taking and terrorism as a tool of statecraft could yield dividends without significant repercussions, all at the expense of the Iranian Resistance.
The EU and the US must take an assertive stance. Appeasement does not constitute a strategy; it is an abdication of responsibility.
The regime’s survival hinges on suppression and terrorism. The Iranian people are intent on ending both by overthrowing the ruling theocracy in Iran. The free world could rid itself of the ayatollahs’ menace by siding with the Iranian people, not just by words but by concrete actions.