Transcript of remarks by Former U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a long-time supporter of the Iranian Resistance on July 17, 2020, addressing the Free Iran Rally 2020 Free Iran Global Summit.

Assadollah Assadi, the Iranian diplomat who was arrested attempting to organize the bombing of the NCRI’s Free Iran summit in July 2018 in Paris is now facing his second court appearance in Belgium.

Tens of thousands of MEK supporters from 102 countries on five continents gathered online today for this year’s Free Iran Global Summit. The event featured more than one hundred prominent politicians and dignitaries from around the world, including dozens of speakers.

The Iranian regime is in a desperate situation and it is doing all that it can to keep its grasp on power. One of the biggest threats to its survival is the people of Iran and their continued resistance by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran).

There are many Iranian exiles who now live all over the world supporting the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), will be coming together on Friday 17th July to join a virtual event through Zoom.

Iranian women have been central to the struggle for freedom in Iran. Many both well-known and less known heroines who sacrificed everything they own have been fighting for freedom.

The mullahs’ regime must feel that it is being threatened as it is arresting more and more people for what they believe politically supporters of The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran).

20th June 2020 International online conference: 40 years of fighting. For democracy. For freedom. For equality. Your sacrifice has been great. It’s touching me. It’s talking to me. It is not just for Iran that you have made this sacrifice.

In a conference at the French National Assembly on 29 October, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stressed that in absence of a firm policy, the regime gets further emboldened and tensions and crises aggravate.

Bellow is the second part of Mrs. Rajavi’s speech at the conference:

“• The Iranian regime is never going to change its behavior because it is too weak and isolated; any change in behavior would lead to regime change.

• The regime cannot abandon warmongering or its nuclear and missile projects in return for economic and political concessions. This is why the regime refused the chance to do so despite being offered the best possible opportunity.

• Absent a firm policy, the regime gets further emboldened and tensions and crises aggravate.

   

#MaryamRajavi : #France must take the initiative to open the path to #democracy in #Iranhttps://t.co/NclubJe94c#MEK #NoImpunity4Mullahs @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/4DRijE0tQs

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 30, 2019

She then pointed to the solution saying: The solution is to support the people of Iran who call for the regime’s overthrow.

Mrs. Rajavi discussed the growing recent protests in Iran and said:

” Today, the people of Iran are protesting and holding strikes in factories, in the streets, in Isfahan, Lordegan, Arak and other cities, but they are suppressed. In their view, the only solution to their misery is the overthrow of the regime.

In their protests, they have time and again addressed the regime’s leaders, telling them to let go of Syria, but the mullahs keep spending the lion’s share of the nation’s revenues on war and terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. The country’s economy is paralyzed. The economic growth rate has shrunk by 9.5 percent, and the inflation rate is between 40 and 50 percent. In a nutshell, the mullahs’ regime is engulfed in one of the most critical periods of its rule.

The religious dictatorship ruling Iran does not represent the Iranian people nor their rich history and culture. “

 

Enjoying a vast popular support, the defiant youth, supporters of the #MEK, torched the symbols of the regime’s leadership, across #Iran https://t.co/b4A1Pv1Mnf#FreeIran @USAdarFarsi pic.twitter.com/oIXnMGjVoP

— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) October 28, 2019

Highlighting the expectation from France she said:

“As the leading country in Europe, France must take the initiative to open the path to democracy in Iran, and to support human rights, the Iranian people and the Resistance. This is the only way we can restore peace in the Middle East and bring about stability and democracy.”

In conclusion, Mrs. Rajavi said:

” There is a democratic alternative capable of establishing a democratic and pluralist republic based on the separation of religion and state, gender equality, the autonomy of ethnic groups, and a non-nuclear Iran.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran is capable of replacing this regime and peacefully transferring power to elected representatives of the people of Iran.

Our people, resistance and resistance units are prepared to achieve this, and we hope that Europe and France stand with the Iranian people and their legitimate demands and aspirations.”

An exhibition in this regard was on display all day close to the National Assembly.

In an article entitled, “Embrace of Iran’s Foreign Minister Creates an Opening for Propaganda and Terrorism” (Town Hall, September 6, 2019), former U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain and the State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Adam Ereli discussed the recent G7 and Europian effort to facilitate U.S.- Iran dialogue.

“The Iranian regime was a major topic of discussion during the G-7 Summit in Biarritz last month. But neither France nor any other European country should be helping the murderous regime to acquire a larger presence on the international stage. Tehran’s support for terrorism goes beyond the Middle East and threatens both Europe and the U.S.,” wrote Amb. Ereli.

'Embrace of Iran’s Foreign Minister Creates an Opening for Propaganda and Terrorism,' writes Amb. Adam Ereli (@erelija)#MaximumPressure #Terrorism https://t.co/p6L3IYNyGp

— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) September 7, 2019

Referring to the recent terrorist activities of the Iranian regime, particularly, the bombing plot against the great gathering of the Iranian opposition (NCRI) in Paris last year, Amb. Ereli added,

“In the summer of 2018, two Iranian operatives were stopped in Belgium, as they attempted to carry high-explosives to a rally that had been organized outside Paris. Tens of thousands of Iranian expatriates from throughout the world had gathered there for a conference. Many of the hundreds of international dignitaries were prominent figures in politics, security, and academia from France, the US, and dozens of other countries.”

“The plot was neutralized, as were at least five other incidents stretching from Albania to America. The Paris bomb plot led immediately to the arrest of an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who was found to be the mastermind. A French intelligence investigation determined that he had been acting on explicit orders directly from the highest levels of the regime. Moreover, he was using the cover provided by his diplomatic status and Iran’s embassies abroad to disguise the regime’s terrorism.  Germany extradited Assadi to Belgium, where he and three of his agents are now awaiting trial.” Mr. Ereli added

Amb. Ereli argues that Zarif’s invitation to G7 demonstrated the international community’s indifference toward Iranian regime’s terrorism and gave the regime’s globetrotting propagandist an opportunity to put a smiling face on intolerable actions and to whitewash a 40-year history of terrorist financing and human rights violations.

“The French attitude could be an undermining the US imposed sanctions on Zarif and the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)”, he noted.

The former State Department Spokesperson also highlighted the role of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) in exposing the Iranian regime’s terrorism, which, in his words, explains the hostility of Iranian regime towards the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)

“This has always been the position of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), which explains why the Iranian regime is determined to eliminate this group and its members.  In addition to the attempt to blow up the NCRI’s rally outside Paris and attacks against the MEK’s headquarters in Albania last year, the government of Iran executed an estimated 30,000 MEK political prisoners in the summer of 1988. The fact that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei publicly acknowledged the role of the MEK in organizing the anti-regime protests that rocked all parts of Iran in 2018 is a telling admission of the group’s ability to rattle the regime.”

The solution lies in the hands of the Iranian people and Resistance who seek the overthrow of this dictatorship. #FreeIran #Iran pic.twitter.com/ua278poBSO

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 7, 2019

Instead of embracing Zarif, the mouthpiece of the terrorist regime of Iran, the international community must hold him and other terrorist officials of mullahs accountable for their crimes and as Mr. Ereli noted

“If Mr. Zarif must appear at international gatherings, he should be challenged aggressively over his government’s ongoing record of criminal activity. Anything less will encourage Iran to act with increasing impunity, with devastating consequences.”

Staff writer