The open letter was sent to Mr Varadkar in June by Alejo Vidal-Cuadras, a former vice-president of the European Parliament and co-founder of Spain’s far-right party Vox.
Mr. Vidal-Cuadras is currently the president of an NGO called the International Committee for Justice (ISJ), which, according to its website, was originally founded as a group dedicated to “demanding justice for Iran’s democratic opposition.” It was established in 2008.
In his letter, Mr Vidal-Cuadras called on Mr Varadkar to “join an open letter from former world leaders expressing solidarity with the Iranian people’s aspirations for freedom and democracy”.
“Your distinguished career and commitment to human rights will lend great weight to this effort,” he said in an email to Mr Varadkar.
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As part of an open letter, the signatories “condemn the flagrant human rights violations, especially the oppression of women” in Iran and say “the ruling religious dictatorship is incapable of reform.”
In an email to the Tánaiste, Mr Varadkar’s office asked the Foreign Secretary for advice on whether to sign the open letter.
In correspondence released under freedom of information laws, Mr Martin advised Mr Varadkar not to sign the letter.
“Many of the criticisms of the Iranian regime contained in the letter are with which we agree, and indeed Ireland has not made such criticisms of Iranian actions at the UN Human Rights Council or elsewhere, nor has it participated in any such criticisms. “We’ve done a lot of things,” Tánaiste said.
“However, I do not intend to make these criticisms in the form of a letter that is clearly associated with the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (PMOI) and its political wing, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
“I think doing so would be counterproductive and undermine the impact of the message we are trying to send, not just to the Iranian regime, but to many ordinary people in Iran.”
Martin said the government does not believe the NCRI “represents an important body of public opinion in Iran.”
“We do not respond or even acknowledge their occasional attempts to engage us directly,” Tánaiste said.
The open letter outlines five principles, one of which states that the signatories “recognize the right of the Iranian people and the MEK resistance forces to rise up and confront the Revolutionary Guards (Iranian military).”
The Tánaiste pointed out that this point was particularly problematic.
“PMOI/NCRI advocates the forcible overthrow of the Iranian government. This is alluded to in the fourth principle listed at the end of this letter, stated in very broad and permissive terms. It is being
“No matter how reprehensible we find Iran’s actions, this is not an approach that the government can support,” Martin said, explaining how NCRI has maintained camps for Iranian exiles for decades. He was also critical of the management.
“While the principles of a democratic Iran they espouse are certainly admirable, they are completely at odds with the near-totalitarian manner in which they have managed Iranian exile camps in Iraq and now Albania for decades. ”
In the end, Mr Varadkar did not sign the open letter in question.
MEK is a resistance group expelled from Iran in the 1980s. Iran has designated the group as a terrorist organization.
The United States and the United Kingdom also had the group on their terrorist lists until 2012 and 2008, respectively.
