PDKI Supports The U.S. Department of State’s Statement on Iran’s Assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou
In a statement, the Executive Board of PDKI welcomes and supports the United States recent efforts to raise international awareness on the global assassination campaign and other terrorist activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1979 to the present. In particular, PDKI welcomes and supports U.S. efforts to remind Europe of the assassination of the Kurdish leader Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou by Iranian diplomats-cum-terrorists in Vienna on July 13, 1989.
Earlier this week Brian Hook, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, briefed the press on the U.S. administration’s diplomatic efforts regarding Iran. Hook specifically referred to the assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou by stating: “This […] month of July is the 29th anniversary that Iranian operatives, using diplomatic cover, assassinated the head of an Iranian Kurdish dissident group and two others.” He added: “And so we will be, in the near term, reminding people of Iran and the violence that they have – a lot of their attacks, assassinations, bombings, cyber attacks, kidnapping, hostage-takings, hijackings, small arms attacks, from 1979 to 2018, and we will be discussing that in every region of the world.”
Meanwhile, on July 5, the Bureau of Counterterrorism published a list of Iranian terror acts in Europe between 1979 and 2018, some of which the Iranian regime committed together with the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. The list includes the assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou as well as the assassination of Dr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, who was assassinated by Iranian agents and Hezbollah terrorists in Berlin on September 17, 1992.
On July 13, 1989, negotiations between PDKI and Iran took place at the initiative of the Iranian government in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Ghassemlou and the Kurdish delegation he headed went to the negotiating table in good faith, believing that after nearly a decade of war, the Iranian state was interested in finding a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish issue. However, the Iranian diplomats assassinated Dr. Ghamssemlou and the other members of the Kurdish delegation. Instead of prosecuting the perpetrators of this crime, Austrian authorities escorted the terrorists to the airport in Vienna to facilitate their return to Iran.
Although PDKI at the time held the leaders of the Iranian regime responsible for the assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou and his aides, Austria’s decision to facilitate the free passage of the Iranian agents back to Iran clearly obstructed justice in this case. Therefore, when the United States after 29 years raises the assassination case of Dr. Ghassemlou, it is a courageous step in the struggle against Iran’s global assassination campaign, which has continued unabated since 1979.
The Executive Board of PDKI at the same time calls on European officials to address Iranian terror acts on European soil, especially the assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou in Vienna, in their negotiations with Iran. This is both a moral responsibility and a measure to protect the security of Europe. Iran continues its terrorist activities in Europe, which endangers the security of European countries. More recently, Belgian authorities arrested two Iranian operatives, who were planning to carry out a terror attack in Belgium. Furthermore, an Iranian diplomat was arrested in Germany on terrorism charges, while another Iranian diplomat was expelled from the Netherlands.
The Executive Board of PDKI calls on the Western countries to realize that Iran is the major source of terrorism in the world and that only regime change will ensure that Iran ends its terrorist activities and destabilizing foreign policy. Efforts to change the “behavior” or “policies” of the Iranian regime are doomed to fail, as has been demonstrated repeatedly for the past four decades.
9 July 2018
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
Executive Board
