3 de Agosto 2021
A la atencion de
Don Enrique Mora Benavente
Director Politico de EEAS
Estimado Sr. Mora
To our surprise, we learned from Western media reports that you plan to travel to Tehran to attend the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as president of Iran.
Given the current situation in Iran and Ebrahim Raisi’s past, this news is painful to us. The Iranian people are going through very difficult times. For more than two weeks, Iranian citizens from the southern province of Khuzestan have taken to the streets to protest major water shortages.
The peaceful protesters, seeking basic services that have not been provided by the Iranian government, were attacked by security forces with live ammunition, according to Amnesty International. As a result of this shoot to kill policy, the authorities have killed nine people and have injured several hundred. The demonstrations have spread to other cities and provinces across the country. Indeed, workers from more than one hundred companies in the energy sector have been on strike for more than six weeks. These workers object to their employment conditions, inappropriate salaries, and an unsafe workplace environment.
In light of the current circumstances in Iran and the fact that Ebrahim Raisi was one of four members of the “Death Committee” who sent several thousand political prisoners to their death in 1988, the Iran Transition Council calls on you as a senior EU diplomat to cancel your trip to Tehran. Choosing to travel to Iran runs totally counter to European Union policy considering that Mr. Raisi has been on the EU Human Rights Sanctions List for a decade.
We also call on the EU to strongly condemn ongoing violations of human rights by Iranian government authorities against Iranian citizens, be it peaceful protesters or workers on strike because of basic principles that they believe in as we believe you do as well.
Thank you for your full consideration of this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Hassan Shariatmadari
ITC Secretary General
