Michel, who was President of the European Council from 2019 until last year, toed the European Union line throughout his EU career. Over the year, Brussels has juxtaposed condemnation of some elements of Tehran’s hardline Islamic regime while continuing to recognise and engage with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his agents.
Critics view the position as appeasement of the religious dictatorship, with Michel now admitting it “had not worked and could not work”. Grassroots Iranian freedom fighters have pleaded with the EU for years to stop engaging with Tehran. This has not happened. Indeed, in the last months of his EU tenure, Michel even went so far as to meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
But on Thursday, July 31, in Rome, former EU boss Michel – who formulated policy at the highest level while President of the European Council – admitted he had completely shifted his position on Tehran and even accused the EU of complicity in the Iranian slaughter.
At a high-profile conference in the Sala Regina of the Italian Parliament, called ‘The Next Iranian Massacre is Unfolding in Plain Sight’ he attacked Europe’s failed policy of engagement and said: “I have witnessed how the regime blackmailed governments by hostage taking and by the threat to build nuclear weapons.”
Speaking about lessons that can be drawn, he said: “First, appeasement does not work. We have tried to engage with the regime, but they have abused our goodwill and our sincerity. We all see the nature of this dictatorship. Zero respect for dignity and fundamental rights. And maximum oppression and repression.
“Second, in this context, silence is complicity. Our silence becomes our weakness, and it is the strength of the aggressor.”
Sharing the platform with him were a number of high-ranking Italian MPs and Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The NCRI is battling to overthrow the Ayatollah through peaceful means and install a democratically elected government.
Rajavi has a well-publicised 10-point plan for the future of Iran which includes separating religion and state, equal rights for women, and abandoning plans to build a nuclear weapon. Mr Michel backed her saying: “There is an alternative: The only way promoted by the NCRI is the right way for freedom and democracy in Iran. Ms Rajavi’s 10-point plan is a roadmap from dictatorship to democracy.”
Issuing a stark warning on the danger the current regime represents for the world, Ms Rajavi said: “Iran is one of the most dangerous challenges the world is facing. We can ignore it today but next week, next month, we will have a bigger challenge to face. We must stand up to this religious dictatorship.”
She went on to claim: “They are making a nuclear bomb, exporting terrorism and have an extensive and dangerous missile programme. The appeasement policies of the last four decades cannot continue.”