Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for providing me with this opportunity to share my analysis with you.
Allow me in particular to express my gratitude to you because you do something that most politicians and statesmen in the west do not: you make a linkage between violation of human rights and terrorism and the nuclear issue. What we usually see is that western governments express their concern about Iran’s nuclear program. They, of course, also express their concerns when it comes to the Islamic republic’s support for international terrorism, but when it comes to the human rights violations inside of Iran we do not hear very strong condemnation from abroad.
I believe that this hearing, and your deeds, certainly send the right signal to the Iranian population. Until now, the Iranian public was under the impression that the west does not really care if the threats emanating from the regime are not targeting the west but are only, and solely, targeting the Iranian population. Now the Iranian public know that they have friends among statesmen and elected officials of Canada.
Looking back at the past year, where we have seen the emergence of President Hassan Rouhani, I would like to address two questions: What is the state of human rights in Iran under President Rouhani? What is the state of the Islamic republic’s sponsorship of international terror under President Rouhani?
When it comes to the state of human rights, the truth is that Mr. Rouhani, in his political campaign prior to the election, was not focusing that much on it. There was some discussion about Iran, and the Rouhani team proposed a citizens' charter of rights. Now the charter has been published, but we see some very bad signals from the Rouhani camp being signalled in the charter.
What we see is that the charter in reality is condoning institutionalized acts of discrimination against members of the Iranian public, particularly when it comes to women and religious minorities. For example, in the charter, Mr. Rouhani says that he is against “inappropriate discrimination”. Thereby the charter in reality says that there is something called “appropriate discrimination”. An example of that “appropriate discrimination” is the fact that in Iran, women’s legal testimony, particularly in courts, has half the value of a man’s legal testimony.
When it comes to religious minorities that are recognized by the state, those religious minorities cannot enjoy the right of running for president in Iran, like Mr. Rouhani. Of course, the fate and destiny of religious minorities not recognized by the Iranian state is much worse, particularly the Baha'i community, those who declare themselves atheists, but also supporters of mystic interpretations of Islam that do not pursue the same line and do not share the interpretation of the Iranian state when it comes to what the religion of Islam is.
Apart from that, Mr. Rouhani very clearly, in the charter of citizens' rights, writes that he wants to operate within the body and framework of existing legislation. In practice, it means that, yes, Iranian citizens would have freedom of speech, but they would not have freedom after speech. That is one of the consequences of the charter of rights that Mr. Rouhani is proposing, because according to Iranian legislation, there is no freedom of speech unless it has been through all the censorship authorities that exist in the Islamic republic. Freedom of association, the right to form political groups, all those freedoms, of course, are restricted, and Mr. Rouhani is not proposing anything in order to improve those issues.
The report of Dr. Ahmad Shaheed is familiar to you. He is documenting the deterioration of the state of human rights in Iran under President Rouhani. The number of executions has actually gone up to more than 600—624—in the course of the past year. The number of Baha'i citizens being imprisoned solely because of their faith has increased.
We have imprisonment of political activists who actively promote the cause of ethnic minorities in Iran, labour unions, student unions. All these parameters have changed for the worse, not for the better, under President Rouhani.
There are those who support and defend Mr. Rouhani. They say that the deterioration is not because of Mr. Rouhani. The chief proponent of this theory is former President Ayatollah Rafsanjani. They claim that Mr. Rouhani is on the right side. He wants to do the right thing but institutions such as the Revolutionary Guards and the so-called hardliners are against it. If we take a look at the track record of both Mr. Rafsanjani and Mr. Rouhani, in the entire course of their political careers these two gentlemen have never been proponents of the rights of man—never, never. These two gentlemen are firm believers that Iran's economy should develop, but they do not believe in political development. They would not be ready to give political liberalization to the Iranian public.
Simultaneously, they are also very fearful of Iran having the same destiny as the Soviet Union. What they say is that Mr. Gorbachev started a political reform process in the Soviet Union that only accelerated demands for political freedoms. Mr. Rafsanjani and Mr. Rouhani, back in the days of Mr. Khatami, the reform president, when he came to office they called Mr. Khatami “Ayatollah Gorbachev“. What does that mean? It means that Mr. Khatami, too, was a believer in the system but he was starting a political reform process that could prove extremely dangerous for the survival of the regime. These people, they want economic development; they would like to have sanction relief, but they are not ready to give political freedoms.
In order to stop and control the Iranian public, they believe in the use of terror as an instrument of power; yes, an instrument of power. They fundamentally believe they can control the Iranian population by terrorizing them. Mr. Rouhani is not against violation of human rights. He is effectively using terrorism against Iranian citizens as an instrument of control. Unfortunately, Mr. Rouhani's administration, and in particular the Revolutionary Guards, are also firm believers in terrorism as a foreign policy instrument. They believe that by using terrorism they managed to force the United States to leave Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980s. They believe this. They believe that the Khobar Tower bombings in 1996, according to Mr. Rouhani, created such a fear in America that the Americans no longer believed they had a safe haven in Saudi Arabia. This was Mr. Rouhani on the record analyzing the impact of the Khobar Tower bombings in 1996. After the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, Mr. Rouhani's analysis was practically similar. He believed that the United States was more or less in a state of terror, only because a very, very small group had managed to commit those terrible crimes.
Now that Mr. Rouhani is not going to deliver, what policy recommendations would we give to the Government of Canada?
First of all, most unfortunately, I have to confess that I expect another wave of Iranian refugees leaving Iran and trying to find a safe haven abroad. The Government of Canada has been most gracious, most hospitable, and very, very guest friendly toward my countrymen. I also hope that in the future the Government of Canada can provide Iranian citizens fleeing from injustice in Iran a new home in Canada.
I also hope and urge the Government of Canada to follow up on designating the Quds Force as a terrorist organization. The Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards has many front organizations. One of these organizations is called the Imam Khomeini Aid and Relief Organization. They claim they are practically the same thing as the Red Cross or the Red Crescent in Iran, engaging in aid activity outside of Iran, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in reality, unfortunately, this is a front organization of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards.
If the Quds Force is sanctioned and designated as a terrorist organization, those organizations providing material support to the Quds Force should also be designated.
I would like to add to what my colleague Mr. Dubowitz expressed, the wish that not only the Revolutionary Guards' acts of terrorism against western citizens, not only their engagement in the development of a nuclear bomb, but also their activity in suppressing the civil rights of Iranians inside Iran be on the mind of Canadian parliamentarians whenever they think about designating organizations as violators of the rights of man.
Thank you very much.