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Source: https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1571681/amir-taheri/why-tehran-crosses-only-pink-lines
How the EU Supports the Islamic Republic
(Asharq Al-Awsat-UK) Amir Taheri - The EU's spokesperson for foreign policy, Federica Mogherini, has devoted most of her immense energies operating as a lobbyist for the Islamic Republic of Iran. She has visited more than 30 countries to present the Islamic Republic as the poor little lamb facing the American big bad wolf. When, just weeks after leaving office, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel heads a delegation of European businessmen to Tehran and praises the Islamic Republic as a rock of stability in the Mideast, some in the Khomeinist leadership will see that as an endorsement of Tehran's reckless adventurism. For almost two years the EU has fostered the illusion in the Islamic Republic that it can continue doing as it pleases without risking any bad consequence. The EU's special favorable treatment of the Islamic Republic includes keeping mum about over 20 EU citizens currently held as hostages in Tehran. It is also indicated by a mere rap-on-the-wrist response to the Islamic Republic's latest terrorist operations in four European countries. In Britain, the Islamic Republic controls at least a dozen tax-exempt "charities," often used for financing violent groups across the globe or simply for money laundering. The writer was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979.