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Conference for Democracy in Iran, June 13, 2015
On June 
13, 2015, tens of thousands gathered outside Paris, France to participate at a conference against Islamic Fundamentalism co-sponsored by Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC-US). Iranian-American community leaders joined over 600 dignitaries thousands of participants from 5 continents to express solidarity with the Iranian people and call for worldwide solidarity against Iranian government inspired Islamic extremism.
In addition to two sitting members of the United States Congress addressing the conference in person, Chairman (Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA) and Ranking Member (Rep. Elliot Engel, D-NY) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent video Messages. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and House Democratic Leader, Madam Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also sent video and written messages, respectively.
Thirty eight prominent U.S. dignitaries collectively representing hundreds of years of political, military, human rights, and legal service presented to event’s Keynote Speaker and NCRI President (Madam Maryam Rajavi), a joint letter they recently sent to President Barack Obama on U.S. policy options on Iran.
The following is a few segments, documents, and related texts documented before, during, and after the conference for your review:
Read text of message by Rep. Ed Royce & Rep. Elliot Engel
Note: The following is the text of Madam Maryam Rajavi’s keynote remarks as reflected in the Congressional Record:
SPEECH OF MARYAM RAJAVI, THE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF RESISTANCE OF IRAN (NCR) IN 2015 PARIS GRAND GATHERING OF THE IRANIAN RESISTANCE
–13 JUNE 2015 —
(Extensions of Remarks – July 09, 2015)
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—
SPEECH OF
HON. ROBERT PITTENGER
OF NORTH CAROLINA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015
- Mr. PITTENGER. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following speech by Maryam Rajavi , the elected President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NRC).In the name of God, In the name of Iran, In the name of Freedom, In the name of 120,000 shining stars, the blazing flames of honor and dignity who defied the religious tyranny, and In the name of all the unsung heroes and heroines who made the ultimate sacrifice so that others could live free; so that in the darkest hour of her history, Iran shines with stars, stands proud and cries out: “Down with the velayat-e faqih regime!”VOICE AND MESSAGE OF IRAN’S GENUINE OWNERS
Elected representatives of nations around the globe, Honorable dignitaries, My fellow compatriots, here and all over Iran: I sincerely extend my gratitude to you all for joining this gathering. We have come here to convey to the world the voice and message of Iran’s rightful owners, the Iranian people.[Page: E1025] GPO’s PDF
Amid an unrelenting uproar over the Iranian regime’s ominous nuclear program and three inhuman wars in the region, we have come to say that those who are speaking on behalf of Iran are in fact the enemies of Iran and all Iranians. The people of Iran neither want nuclear weapons, nor meddling in Iraq, Syria or Yemen, nor despotism, torture and shackles. The people of Iran are the tens of millions of enraged teachers, students, nurses and workers who demand freedom, democracy, jobs and livelihood.They say: First, the velayat-e faqih regime has reached the end of the line. Second, the only way to end the violations of human rights in Iran, the nuclear impasse, the crises in the region, and the confrontation with ISIS and terrorism, is to topple the Caliph of regression and terrorism in Iran.MAJOR CHANGE, A COMMON DEMAND
Look at Iran as it has risen up today. It is inflamed and seething despite nearly 1,800 executions during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure: The uprising in Mahabad and the protests in Sanandaj, Sardasht, Saqqez and Marivan, reflect the courage and upheaval of Iranian Kurds in the face of crime and injustice. Successive demonstrations by teachers all across our nation echo the cries of those who have been ignored and have now risen up for the right to life and right to freedom; The daily strikes and sit-ins by workers resonate the outcries of starving families nationwide; Dozens of armed clashes involving young Baluchis, Kurds and Arabs reflect the fury of an enchained nation which has been denied of any means to protest; Hundreds of hunger strikes and protests by political prisoners, embody the perseverance of a nation that has defeated the mullahs even in torture chambers; The sit-ins of the mothers of death-row prisoners, the protests of Gonabadi and Ahl-e Haq dervishes, and the suffering of impoverished street venders are the rumblings of a mountain about to erupt. Look at today’s Iran. Do you see any Iranian not discontented or not wanting change?
The 15 million deprived and destitute citizens languishing in shanty towns in the suburbs, the 10 to 15 million young people who cannot find jobs and the millions of families feeling the heavy burden of high prices, all of them, feel the same pain and demand major change. So, I am speaking to you, my beloved countrymen and women across the nation. Your resistance, your struggle and your solidarity are stronger than any other force. Stand up to the ruling regime and create 1,000 Ashrafs, meaning 1,000 bastions of rebellion in Iran. Major uprisings will arise out of your protests. And the army of rebellion and liberation will be the harbinger of Iran’s freedom for the world.A DEFEATED NUCLEAR STRATEGY
Ladies and gentlemen: The nuclear program that projected the power of the velayat-e faqih regime for the past quarter century is now a source of the mullahs’ weakness and impasse. Why did Khamenei acquiesce to the Geneva Accord, despite being only two to three months away from nuclear weapons capability? The answer is simple: Because he feared another eruption of uprisings; because his nuclear strategy has run aground; and because in the words of his foreign minister, the regime’s strategic capacity has been eroded. This explains why the Geneva Accord destabilized the regime and the Lausanne Agreement destabilized it even further. Unlike Khomeini, who drank from the chalice of poison of ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, Khamenei could not agree to a comprehensive deal with the P5+1. He says, “I neither agree nor disagree.” This means that his regime is at an impasse. The same situation prevails as pertains to the final, comprehensive agreement. Whether or not Khamenei agrees to it, the regime cannot escape the prospects of being overthrown.WRAPPING UP THE BOMB-MAKING STRUCTURE
Unfortunately, western governments, the United States in particular, violated UN Security Council resolutions and offered major concessions, propelling the regime closer to the Bomb. I should therefore remind western governments that the Iranian people and Resistance will not accept any agreement that does not dismantle the regime’s bomb-making infrastructure. UN Security Council resolutions must be implemented fully. Uranium enrichment must be halted completely. All suspect sites, military or otherwise must be inspected. And the regime must provide answers to the military dimensions of its nuclear project and make its nuclear experts available for IAEA questioning.
P5+1 Leaders: If you do not want a nuclear-armed fundamentalist regime, stop appeasing it. Do not bargain over the human rights of the Iranian people and recognize their organized Resistance which is striving for freedom. You are gravely mistaken in thinking that there is no solution. There is a solution for ending the mullahs’ nuclear weapons program: regime change by the Iranian people and Resistance. As the Iranian Resistance’s Leader MassoudRajavi has declared, “Resistance against this regime is our duty and our inalienable right. We have been and will be at war with this regime. With or without enrichment, with and without nuclear weapons, and under any circumstances, the struggle for freedom is the inalienable right of the Iranian people.”FAILURES AND FLAWS OF VALI-E FAQIH
Ladies and gentlemen: The regime’s critical situation can be seen in Khamenei’s failures and in the erosion of his standing. Khamenei has failed to unify the ruling clique. His acquiescence to Rouhani’s presidency reflects this failure. This failure, however, was initially neither because of international sanctions nor due to the economic crisis. The most important reason was the Resistance and the Iranian people’s uprisings. Today, the regime’s Supreme Leader and its President have faced off, bashing one another on a daily basis. The power struggle is reaching the final phase. Rafsanjani has openly called for dividing the power and authority of the Supreme Leader. For the first time, a rival faction has taken shape against Khamenei. The pro-Khamenei faction has significantly split and disintegrated. In other words, the body whose task is to preserve the regime in times of tension and turmoil is itself crumbling. Indeed, the ruling theocracy has rotted at its core. All signs point to the end of this decadent regime.MULLAHS TRAPPED IN THREE WARS
Ladies and gentlemen: Today, the clerical regime has fallen into the trap of three regional wars, in which it can neither advance nor retreat. The bubble-like expansion of the ruling theocracy has put it in a perilous predicament. In Syria, what the mullahs built is teetering because it was erected on quicksand. Although the clerical regime has spent billions of dollars annually to prop up Bashar Assad, today the Syrian dictator is gasping for air. I hope that on victory day, Khamenei joins Assad before the International Criminal Court for the slaughter of 300,000 Syrian men, women and children. In Iraq, the clerical regime has lost its puppet government of Nouri al-Maliki. This is the beginning of the regime’s demise not only in Iraq but also throughout the region. Although the regime continues to commit genocide against the Sunnis by the Quds Force that meddles in Iraq under the pretext of fighting the ISIS, these efforts will prove futile and will not restore the regime’s losses. And in Yemen, Khamenei sought to take over the country to gain the upper hand during the nuclear talks and amid the regional crisis. It, however, turned the largest regional coalition against Tehran. When Bashar Assad is toppled or when the regime’s forces are defeated in Iraq or in Yemen, the regime’s entire front in the Middle East will collapse. This regime lacks the capability to advance in these three wars. On the other hand, if it retreats, it will implode. Such an impasse thus attests to the certainty of the overthrow of the velayat-e faqih regime.NECESSARY EVICTION FROM THE ENTIRE REGION
Today, western and Arab world’s policy makers stress that ISIS and Bashar Assad are the two sides of the same coin. I add that the Caliph in Tehran is the godfather of both of them. The fact is that ISIS emerged out of the atrocities perpetrated by Bashar Assad and Maliki committed on orders from the clerical regime. I therefore call upon western governments to refrain from taking sides with the Tehran regime. In Iraq, do not collaborate with the regime’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and the so-called Shiite militias who are a hundred times more dangerous than the other henchmen. The solution in Iraq is to evict the mullahs’ regime forces, to empower Sunni power-sharing, and to arm the Sunni tribes. The solution in Syria is to evict the Iranian regime’s forces and to support the people of Syria in overthrowing Assad’s dictatorship. The solution in Yemen is to stand up to Tehran, as the Arab coalition has already done. This must be pursued until the regime is uprooted all across the region. Indeed, the solution is to evict the Iranian regime from the entire region and to topple the Caliph of regression and terrorism Iran.AN ORGANIZED MOVEMENT
Ladies and gentlemen: When social conditions are ripe for change, there is no element more vital than the existence of an organized movement. This explains why the mullahs fear and attempt to destroy the People’s Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The mullahs have always considered the PMOI’s presence in Iraq as an existential threat because they are the vanguard force in the fight against religious fascism. The PMOI and the NCRI hoisted the banner of peace in diametric opposition to Khomeini’s persistence on prolonging the Iran-Iraq war. The PMOI formed the National Liberation Army. The PMOI and the NCR foiled the nefarious conspiracies of the Iranian regime and its appeasers, and nullified the unjust terrorist label by winning in more than 20 courts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere in Europe. The PMOI and the National Council of Resistance discredited and terminated the 15-year-long case opened by the French Judiciary. They upheld the Iranian people’s right to regime change.TERMINATION OF PRISON CONDITIONS AND BLOCKADE OF CAMP LIBERTY
Dear friends: Over the past three decades, the mullahs have endeavored to annihilate this movement more than anything else. Their efforts include thousands of conspiracies and churning out allegations particularly against the Resistance Leader MassoudRajavi . They have also fired 1,000 missiles at PMOI and National Liberation Army bases in 2000. We all recall that in an attempt to crack down on the June 2009 uprisings, the regime first attacked Camp Ashraf. Similarly, the morning after his defeat during the Presidential elections in 2013, Khamenei ordered a rocket attack on Camp Liberty. And two years ago, when he decided to sign the
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nuclear accord, he ordered that Ashraf residents be massacred. The mullahs’ real aim is to annihilate the residents of Liberty or secure their surrender to the regime. This explains why the regime is hindering their relocation out of Iraq, On the other hand, by repeatedly violating international treaties and reneging on their written obligations toward the Ashrafis, the U.S. and the UN have in practice sided with the religious fascism ruling Iran. I once again call on the U.S. and the UN to take urgent action to protect the Camp Liberty residents and put an end to the medical and logistical siege of the camp and its prison-like conditions. If the United States does not guarantee that the PMOI is protected against attacks by the terrorist Quds Force, it must, at least, return part of its member’s personal arms for self-defense and protection purposes. - HOPE AND CAUSE
Dear friends: Change in Iran is within reach because not only has the regime rotted to the core, but Iranian society is also ready for change and path to that change has already been paved. This path has been opened and led by Massoud Rajavi and this is his great mandate. When he left the Shah’s prison, Massoud asked: “How could anyone shackle and enchain a nation forever?” In pursuit of the ideal of freedom, Massoud Rajavi created a movement that has propelled Iran towards freedom. Yes, the national uprising of June 20, 1981, the National Council of Resistance and the National Liberation Army, Ashraf City and Camp Liberty, are all cornerstones that he shaped and inspired in order to secure freedom in Iran. The late Ayatollah Taleqani said that interrogators at Evin Prison feared Massoud Rajavi’s name. Now, the ruling mullahs and their cohorts also fear both his name and his words because he has turned the forbidden word of “toppling the regime” into a major movement that has driven the religious fascism into an impasse. He has taught the vanguard generation of Iran that in the struggle against the velayat-e faqih’s barbarism, the only gem blessed with an eternal spirit is one’s commitment to an ideal, having faith, maintaining hope, being truthful, and making sacrifices. The PMOI, which just this year will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, has advanced a struggle for a cause and ideal, without focusing on what they will themselves gain from it. Having an ideal means standing as resolute as a mountain, yet flowing as freely as a river, and gripping ever so tightly the banner of liberty despite all the storms and calamities. It means shedding all fears of both the length of the struggle and the enormous price it demands. This is the path that guides the ship of freedom toward the shores of salvation.
From the PMOI founder Mohammad Hanifnejad and his associates to young people who join our ranks every day, from the men who believe in the ideal of equality to the 1,000 vanguard women who form the PMOI’s Central Council, they all have one thing in common. They have chosen the tradition of sacrificing themselves without expecting any reciprocity. They adhere to a tradition that has guided the actions of vanguards and pioneers of freedom since the beginnings of time; the tradition of embracing a fiery commitment and remaining faithful to the idea that this world is defined by change and not by destiny. Our Constitution is freedom, democracy and equality With this ideal and this faith, we are determined to build a free and democratic society. A century ago, the Mojahedin of the Constitutional Movement sought to realize “justice, freedom, equality and unity.” Afterwards, the great nationalist leader of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq, rose up and said, “The aim is to ensure that people participate in every aspect of affairs, whether good or bad, and take over the affairs of the nation.” Subsequently, the Fedayeen and the PMOI and other vanguard militants opened the path to overthrowing the Shah’s dictatorship. And now, our Resistance–with a galaxy of fallen heroes and heroines from Ashraf Rajavi and Moussa Khiabani to Sedigheh Mojaveri and Neda Hassani to Zohreh Ghaemi and Giti Givechian–has arisen to ensure freedom of choice for each and every one of our fellow Iranians. We have rejected the ruling tyrannical regime. We have rejected forcible and misogynous religion. And we have rejected the Constitution of the velayat-e faqih. Our Constitution is freedom, democracy and equality. Our Constitution has not been drafted by the Assembly of Experts, a collection of criminals. It has been engraved in the hearts of each and every Iranian. And it will be drafted by elected representatives of the Iranian people in a Constituent Assembly. This Constitution is founded on a free, tolerant and advanced republic. It is founded on pluralism, separation of religion and state, women’s equality and their active and equal participation in political leadership. We believe in equal rights for all ethnic and religious minorities and a society devoid of torture and executions. My fellow compatriots, who have gathered here, and my dear compatriots who are hearing me right now all across Iran, are you ready to expand the campaign for Iran’s liberation and overthrow the velayat-e faqih regime? Indeed, to carry out this great responsibility, which will herald a glorious future, we pledge before Iran’s history and nation that we are ready, ready, ready. Indeed, with the hope and faith in freedom, we have gone through half a century of struggle against two dictatorships. And we will continue with ever-greater hope and determination until freedom and democracy reign supreme in Iran. Yes, we can break the chains; And flow to the sea like a river; With a radiant cause, we can; Destroy the darkness of injustice; We can and we must sing in unison; In every breath, of Iran’s freedom; No doubt, the future belongs to you; Hundreds of hails to you and your struggle.
May victory be yours!
