Iran, formerly known as Persia, is an Asian country located in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is the 18th largest country in the world and has a population of 70 million people. Iran has one of the oldest histories in the world, extending nearly 6,000 years and has always been a key player in world politics.
To understand better how this country developed in recent decades would bring us to what is going on nowadays. To prevent Axis occupation during World War II, the British and Soviets occupied Iran in the summer of 1941. This led to the coming to throne of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who became Shah of Iran.
The next important event is the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who became an active critic of the Shah’s modernisation and publicly denounced the government. Khomeini, who was popular in religious circles, was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After his release in 1964, Khomeini was sent into exile.
The autocratic way of ruling administered by the Shah paved the way for the Iranian revolution of 1979. The revolution was a populist, nationalist, and to some extent Shi’a Islamist reaction against the government.
The revolution led the Shah to leave the country in mid-January 1979 and two weeks later the Ayatollah Khomeini, who had emerged as the leader of the Revolution after the murder of Dr Ali Shariati in England, returned from exile.
Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on 1 April after Iranians overwhelmingly approved the national referendum. Khomeini and his supporters worked to implement his vision of an Islamic state with sharia, or conservative Islamic laws, and clerical rule.
This was followed by the Iran-Iraq war. On 22 September 1980, the Iraqi army invaded Iran at Khuzestan, precipitating the Iran-Iraq war. With more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq’s chemical weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is the world’s second-most afflicted country by weapons of mass destruction.
In 1997, a general election was held and Mr Khatami was elected as president. This led to a renewed Comprehensive Dialogue between the European Union and Iran. The dialogue was in a form of semi-annual troika meetings, started in 1998. These meetings were supposed to lead to closer relations and a trade and cooperation agreement. A mandate was adopted in June 2002, which led relations to develop into a positive direction.
This effort towards reform came to a halt with the outcome of the 2004 elections. These elections have been criticised by the European Union which led to limited progress which lagged well behind initial expectations.
Relations continued to deteriorate after the coming to power of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. With the negotiations on the trade and cooperation agreement (NCA) stalled due to the pending nuclear issues, the EU has been trying to convince the Iranian authorities to suspend the nuclear programme and meet for further development of the NCA.
Another issue that is keeping back relations is the human rights situation in Iran. Lack of freedom of expression, harassment of minority groups, denial of women’s rights and the intimidation of human rights defenders brought the European Union to support a UN resolution regarding the situation in Iran (21 November 2005, 60th General Assembly).
The current situation in Iran is of great concern. Even the European Council, in a declaration issued on the 15 December 2006, expressed such concern: “The European Council expresses deep concern at the Iranian government’s statements concerning the EU and individual member states, as well as its threats towards Israel, and the continuing deterioration of human rights and political freedoms of its citizens.”
Although official relations have been limited, the European Union is still assisting the Iranian population by offering cooperation to local NGOs and UN institutions in the fields of counter-narcotics, refugees and promotion, human rights and disaster relief. The assistance provided totals approximately e15 million.
It is of utmost importance for the European Union to assure that human rights are respected even in trade partner countries.
This forms part of the EU’s policy to promote the European values in a global context.
While the European Union should keep aiding the people of Iran, it should assure that their rights are respected by the government and to dialogue with the Iranian authorities to open further cooperation while at the same time work for the suspension of the nuclear programme.
David Casa is a Nationalist MEP
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www.davidcasa.eu