Stop Fundamentalism – The French Television OWNI reported Wednesday on its website that the French police are aiding the Iranian police force by providing it with 20 trained police dogs. This number is a partial shipment of the total of 52 trained dogs ordered by Iranian regime.
The dogs are sold to be used to fight against narcotics and drug smuggling, but surely they can serve other oppressive purposes including cracking down on Iranian protesters and dissidents.
A company named Civipol in consultation and cooperation with the French interior ministry is providing the dogs to the Iranian police, says OWNI. The purchase is through Iranian Drug Control Headquarters which is an organ affiliated with the Iranian president.
While the French Defense ministry is also involved as it is responsible for training of the dogs before they are sent to Iran, says OWNI, but the French Army does not want to be responsible for what happens after the dogs are in the hands of the Iranian police.
Iran is currently under increasing international pressure for trying to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington. Two men have been charged and one is already in custody of the United States who has apparently confessed to the crime.
Yesterday European Union Sanctioned 5 men, one of whom is the top Commander of the Iranian Quds force, Ghasem Soleimani, who directly reports to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. All men are believed to be affiliated with the Iranian Quds Force which is the foreign operations section of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
With Iranian regime’s terrifying records of human rights and treatment of dissidents and those detained, providing these dogs to the Iranian government by France is definitely questionable. Many are afraid the dogs will be used for cowed control purposes in anti-government demonstrations against Iranian people.
According to Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, Iranian regime is building an extensive oppression mechanism to control dissent which can be empowered by these trained dogs.
More importantly, even if the only use of the dogs were for drug control, still drug smugglers in Iran face a horrifying fate as many are faced with degrading treatments and are hanged publicly. There have been over 360 drug related hangings in Iran during the current year according to reports by the French Embassy in Iran.
OWNI TV website says that the green light to sell the dogs to Iran has come directly from Elysee Palace (Office of the French President).
