‚To Austria’s Press Agency APA Kopf said he did not come to Iran to ‘moralize’ and instead criticized the United States. (…) According to Iranian regime media, the head of the Expediency Discernment Council and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani received Austria’s Deputy Parliament Speaker with a classic anti-Semitic notion and declared regarding Israel, that the ‚fabricated Zionist regime‘ is to blame for terrorism in the region. Said Stephan Grigat, Stop the Bomb’s Research Director: ‚Bad enough that Kopf pays his respect to the anti-Semitic ayatollahs and does not even say a word against the Iranian regime’s threats to wipe out Israel, which are also repeated under Rouhani. But when Kopf now demands the removal of all still existing sanctions against the Iranian regime for human rights abuses and the financing of terrorism – well, this really can only be understood as the ultimate cozying up to Iran’s brutal Islamist regime.‘
In the 1980s and early 1990s, U.S. and European officials considered Rafsanjani a ‚pragmatist‘ and a partner with which to do business. Behind-the-scenes, Rafsanjani ridiculed those approaches. Later on, on December 14, 2001, Rafsanjani delivered a Friday sermon in which he suggested that Iran might use nuclear weapons in a first-strike against Israel because Iran was large enough to absorb any retaliation. Kopf may have felt it impolitic to mention such things in front of hosts, but the moral cowardice that was the result ensures that Iran’s leadership – even ‘pragmatists’ like Rafsanjani – continue to believe they can get away with murder, both of Iranians in the Islamic Republic’s many political prisons and perhaps those beyond Iran’s borders as well.“ (Michael Rubin: „Europe Betrays Human Rights Again“)
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Wurde Statement des ÖVP-Politikers Kopf vom Iran verfasst?
