On Monday, May 16, 2022, Michael Pompeo, the 70th US Secretary of State, visited Ashraf 3, the headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), and met with Madam Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Mr. Pompeo and Mrs. Rajavi attended the Mojahedin meeting at the Baharestan Hall in Ashraf. Expressing pleasure meeting the residents, Mr. Pompeo affirmed: “1000 former political prisoners of the theocratic regime are gathered here today. I want to say to you, from a former Secretary of State, that America recognizes and deeply respects you. The things you have suffered in the name of freedom reminds us of what our country was founded to defend and secure so many years ago.”
“I’d also like to recognize President-elect Maryam Rajavi. Under her leadership, the National Council of Resistance of Iran is laying the groundwork for a free, sovereign, and democratic republic in Iran,” he added.
In another part of his speech, Mr Pompeo said: “Ebrahim Raisi, the butcher who orchestrated the 1988 massacre, is now President… Turnout was the lowest since 1979, marking a total rejection of the regime and its candidate. It was, in fact, a boycott of the regime – and the regime knows it. The regime is clearly at its weakest point in decades.”
“Raisi is not the President of the people of Iran. He is the President of the Ayatollah. His mission is clear. Inflict pain. Frighten, continue to loot and plunder. But Raisi has already failed. He has failed to crush uprisings in Iran or break the noble sprit of dissent within the Iranian people,” he further elaborated.
He added: “As a group with a real political voice in Washington and around the world, we need you to represent to world leaders the destructive capabilities of the theocratic dictators in Tehran.
A serious missing factor in U.S. policy towards Iran is has been the lack of political support for the organized opposition. The regime in Tehran went to the extreme to massacre 30,000 political prisoners, whose main targets and a majority of victims were the MEK. The threat of attack extends far beyond Iran’s borders, with the regime having waged terror plots in Europe and the U.S. against the leaders of this movement. Now, to correct the Iran policy, no matter who is in the White House, it is a necessity for the U.S. administration to reach out to the Iranian Resistance and take advantage of its tremendous capabilities. Ashraf 3 is one such place to focus on.”
Mr. Pompeo had a clear path of progress in mind: “Actions supporting our love of the Iranian people must begin by holding Ebrahim Raisi accountable for his crimes against humanity back in 1988.”
“We must continue to support the Iranian people as they fight for a freer and more democratic Iran in any way we can. There is so much good work that American civil society can do to further this goal. It is work your organization is actively engaged in.”
“In the end the Iranian people will have a secular, democratic, non-nuclear Republic, I pray that this day will come soon and with the support of Iranians living all around the world – and those who resist from within — that day will come sooner. I am committed to this cause; I know you all are too,” he concluded.
While welcoming Mr. Pompeo in Ashraf-3, Mrs. Rajavi said: “The Iranian people and the mullahs’ regime have faced off ferociously in the past 43 years. And this fight will continue until a free, democratically elected republic is established in Iran…. There are two significant factors to the conflict in today’s Iran:
The regime’s state of maximum weakness and the people’s maximum anger and discontent. The outcome of these factors has been the progress and expansion of the organized Resistance. The West ignored the Iranian people and their organized resistance as the decisive factor in any the developments pertaining to in Iran for four decades. It thus enabled the mullahs to be on the verge of having a nuclear bomb. Ignoring the Iranian people and their Resistance was the missing factor which explains why the West was caught by surprise during the 1979 Revolution that toppled the Shah.
Mrs. Rajavi ended her remarks by emphasizing, “we can and must free Iran, the Middle East, and the world of the evil of the nuclear mullahs.”
She outlined the following steps to achieve this objective:
“First, imposing comprehensive sanctions and international isolation of the religious dictatorship. The mullahs’ regime should be placed under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter;
“Second, referring the dossier of human rights abuses in Iran and the clerical regime’s terrorism to the UN Security Council, particularly the files on the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 and the killing of 1,500 during the November 2019 uprising;
“Third, recognizing the struggle of Iranian Iran’s rebellious youths’ struggle against the IRGC and the people’s struggle of the entire Iranian nation to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.”
During the five hour visit, Secretary Pompeo visited different exhibits at the Resistance’s museum, including those pertaining to popular uprisings, Resistance Units, the massacre of political prisoners, the medieval tortures, the replica of women’s prison cells in Evin and Qezel Hessar Prisons, and the replica of the Death Corridor and Execution Hall at Gohardasht Prison.
