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Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

My hon. Friend the Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Ruffley) described the Minister's speech as gracious. I assume that he was being sarcastic, because it was certainly nothing of the sort. It was a disgraceful and churlish speech. When the House considers this terrible matter, it is clear that the Government have behaved appallingly with the Foreign Office saying one thing and the Home Office saying another. The Minister's position tonight was disgraceful and it is a pity that the Home Secretary did not stay to listen to his speech. The PMOI has been seeking to bring an end to the terrorist and barbaric regime ruling Iran. More than 120,000 members and supporters of the movement, including boys and girls as young as 12, have been executed by the regime. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and her supporters should be congratulated on the huge sacrifices they have made on behalf of others. The Minister cannot possibly dismiss what the Lord Chief Justice said in the Court of Appeal's judgment of 7 May 2008. I repeat what he said then:"““It is a matter for comment and for regret that the decision-making process in this case has significantly fallen short of the standards which our public law sets and which those affected by public decisions have come to expect.””" That is an absolute disgrace. I firmly hope that today the Government have turned a page in their relations with the Iranian regime on the one hand and the Iranian people and their legitimate resistance to that regime on the other. I hope that the Minister will dissociate himself from the article in today's edition of The Times, which was written by its deputy political editor, that told us that the Prime Minister"““has ordered… the Home Secretary to ban the PMOI's military wing instead””." We are told that, apparently"““Iran has been exerting pressure on ministers to keep the ban on the PMOI, which is part of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. 'They have threatened to withdraw diplomats over this unless the ban stays,' one well-placed figure said.””" The Government must take immediate steps to ensure that the PMOI is removed from the European Union asset freeze list. The Government must accept that although the UK was a competent authority upon whose decision the EU listed the PMOI, now that that decision has been declared unlawful, the listing of the PMOI in the EU is also unlawful. At the same time, the Government must recognise the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as well as the PMOI, as being the legitimate opposition to the Iranian regime and engage in dialogue with them about the future. Of course I commend the Prime Minister on his announcement last week that Britain and a few other EU states would be imposing further sanctions on the Iranian regime's banking, oil and natural gas interests. However, the Government need to go much further. They should adopt a firm policy towards Iran, including blacklisting the revolutionary guard while applying comprehensive sanctions against the regime. The message to the mullahs in Tehran needs to be very clear: Britain will no longer have anything to do with a mediaeval regime that stones women to death, hangs children in public, exports fundamentalism and terrorism across the middle east, trains, funds and arms terrorists responsible for the killing of innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as coalition troops, and pursues nuclear weapons. The order is a matter for rejoicing for all those people who want freedom in Iran, and it is a matter of shame for Her Majesty's Government that it has taken them so long to bring it forward.