Kathleen Depoorter: Europe Must End Appeasement, Stand with Iranian People's Right to Overthrow Theocratic Regime

Kathleen Depoorter, Member of the Belgian Federal Parliament and Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that recent developments have demonstrated beyond doubt that Iran's ruling theocracy is incapable of reform and that lasting peace can only be achieved by supporting the Iranian people's struggle for democratic change.

"The past months have taught us a clear lesson: this regime cannot be reformed. The only path toward peace and stability is to support the Iranian people in their effort to bring about democratic change."

Depoorter stressed that decades of appeasement have only emboldened Tehran's rulers, enabling them to intensify domestic repression while exporting instability throughout the region.

She emphasized that the Iranian Resistance and the Resistance Units have shown that a credible democratic alternative exists inside Iran, adding that the Iranian people have clearly rejected both the former monarchy and the current religious dictatorship.

According to Depoorter, the systematic oppression of women is not merely a human rights violation but one of the ideological foundations of the ruling system, making women's leadership in the struggle for freedom particularly significant.

She hailed Maryam Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan as a comprehensive democratic roadmap based on free elections, separation of religion and state, gender equality, judicial independence, abolition of the death penalty, and a non-nuclear Iran living peacefully with its neighbors.

Depoorter called on European governments to place human rights at the center of all relations with Tehran, arguing that political dialogue cannot be separated from the regime's ongoing executions and repression.

She also urged greater international accountability for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and those responsible for serious human rights violations.

Depoorter concluded: "The Iranian people stand on the right side of history, and Europe must make its choice as well. Supporting the Iranian people's aspiration for freedom and democracy is not only a political necessity—it is a moral responsibility. I firmly believe that the Iranian people, through their organized resistance, will ultimately build a free, democratic, and peaceful Iran."