Maryam Rajavi: The regime has no way to thwart being overthrown

Saturday, December 15, 2018, Maryam Rajavi spoke to a global video conference where Iranian communities in more than 40 capitals of Europe, North America and Australia participated simultaneously.

Patrick Kennedy, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Pandeli Majko, Senior Minister of State from Albania, Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, former senator from Columbia, Mr. Fatmir Mediu, Member of Parliament from Albania, Senator Gerry Horkan from Ireland, Mr. Antonio Tasso member of the Parliament of Italy, and a number of other MPs, senators, European elected representatives as well as political, legal and religious dignitaries attended the conference and made speeches.

Dear friends, 
Honorable dignitaries in other countries,
Respectable members of the Iranian communities,
My dear sisters and brothers,

My warmest regards and salutes to you, supporters of the Iranian Resistance, hardworking, impassioned, patient and selfless friends who seem to be apart in more than 40 capitals in three continents, but are practically united as one. You are messengers of the same heart and soul –our country, Iran– which is yearning for freedom; those people who have risen up all across the nation, those who are determined to turn the page of their country’s history, with clenched fists and angry cries in Ahvaz, Shush, Isfahan and all Iranian universities.

Dear friends,
Two weeks from now, the new year 2019 will usher in.
Three days ago, Khamenei said, the U.S. and the PMOI might be creating commotion in 2018, but their plans are for 2019. According to Khamenei, the U.S. seeks to create discord and internal conflict in Iran by assigning special agents to counter the regime, by assisting the PMOI and their likes, and through sanctions and counter-intelligence activities.
Really? Why is Khamenei so terrified and concerned at the specter of the New Year, of discord and crisis within the regime, and of the war it has launched with its own hands against the people of Iran?
Because in the year that is ending soon, not a single day went by without protests against the theocratic regime, and without cries for freedom.
So, I would tell Khamenei and the rest of the mullahs: Yes, you should fear, and you should tremble, because your overthrow is imminent at the hands of the Iranian people and their Resistance. They are passionately going for it and they will definitely make it come true.

Dear friends,
Today, I would like to take the opportunity to explain about two fundamental issues which sum up the developments in the past year.
First, the clerical regime has no way and no solution to thwart its being overthrown. Since 40 years ago, we have sincerely wished to see the clerical regime change its behavior. But as they say, they will not commit suicide in fear of death.
Second, the theocratic regime’s strategy to survive and break out of crisis, is further crackdown and suppression inside Iran, and more export of terrorism, war and crises to other countries.
Last July, the regime’s president, Hassan Rouhani, acknowledged that their domestic and international problems had escalated since January. He said, “The riots… gave a message to foreigners who (in turn) found out that they could have an impact by exerting more pressure.”
Yes, it was exactly at this point when the regime lost its internal and external balance, tensions escalated against the regime, and its essential instability began to surface.
Over the past year, the regime repeatedly tried to stifle the uprisings. Every time, however, the embers started glowing from under the ashes.
The regime attempted to stop the resistance units, to no avail.
It resorted to terrorist plots against the Resistance, but suffered a backlash.
They sought to rectify their bankrupt economy, but the situation deteriorated.
They sought collaboration of European governments as a way to get around the sanctions, but did not get anywhere.
Khamenei’s policy of turning to the East, namely to Russia and China, did not solve any of their problems.
China just recently withdrew from investing in the South Pars Gas Field in Iran, after Total which had already withdrawn.
Yes, this is the whole truth. The regime has no way out, and any solution it finds ends up firing back on them.
The product of such a political impasse has been a dramatic fall in the regime’s political, economic, social and international status.
Rouhani’s supporters say, “The situation of Rouhani’s government hangs in the balance” and that “the government is lethargic and confused.”
Referring to the defection of revolutionary guards, the IRGC commander said, “The internal situation of the IRGC is a matter of concern to the leader.”
It is exactly because of this deadlock, that the mullahs have on a number of occasions resorted to terrorist plots, this year which included,
The terrorist plot against the PMOI in Albania;
The terrorist attempt to bomb the annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance in France which was recently condemned by 105 members of the U.S. Congress through a bipartisan resolution;
The terrorist and espionage project against members of the Iranian Resistance in the U.S.;
Rocket attacks on the centers and headquarters of Iranian Kurdish parties;
And a terrorist scheme in Denmark.

There are several important facts to note about these plots and attacks:
First, the regime’s recourse to terrorism and other crimes is not a transient or tactical reaction, but a solution and an outlet in the regime’s strategy to survive and rein in its overthrow crisis.
Second, the regime’s terror-mania comes on the heels of the U.S. sanctions, in circumstances where they need political and economic assistance of European governments more than ever before.
Third, the arrest of an Iranian intelligence official who worked under the cover of a diplomat in Austria, the expulsion of three terrorist diplomats from France and the Netherlands, the arrest of a terrorist in Denmark who had close ties to the regime’s embassy and ambassador in Norway, and the trial of two of the regime’s terrorists in Kenya prove that the mullahs’ Supreme National Security Council, the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the terrorist Quds Force, the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), the Foreign Ministry, and the regime’s embassies are all parts of the clerical regime’s terrorist network.
This is a fact proven since two decades ago by verdicts of the courts and judiciaries in Germany, the U.S., Italy, Switzerland, Argentina, and other countries and implicating direct responsibility of the mullahs’ leader, Ali Khamenei, the regime’s president, its foreign minister, the incumbent intelligence minister, and commanders of the IRGC. International arrest warrants were even issued for some of them.
Last month, on November 5, the mullahs’ Foreign Minister Zarif made some explicit remarks at their parliament. In response to a deputy’s questions about the confidential annexes to the nuclear agreement, Zarif said that in addition to Rouhani’s approval, everything including all the details of the deal had been worked out with the knowledge and approval of Khamenei. He said unequivocally, “We are not a system to act arbitrarily… How could we ever do anything in this country, without reporting it?”
Yes, these remarks make it clear that it is absolutely illogical to suggest that some acts of terrorism could be carried out arbitrarily, without the knowledge of Khamenei or Rouhani, in a regime that monitors all the minute details of people’s private lives. Such fictitious premises are intended to cover up the regime’s crimes and only further embolden them in resorting to terrorism.

Now, I would go over the fourth significant point:
The fourth point is that the regime makes use of terrorism in Europe and the U.S. as an essential defensive tool to launch a counter attack against the Iranian people’s uprisings.
Previously, terrorism was an offensive tool for advancing the regime’s foreign policy. Twenty-five years ago, based on Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the regime’s scholars like Javad Larijani, brother of the mullahs’ parliamentary speaker, defined terrorism as “a new type of force” to spread the rule of Islam so that it would find its place in the world’s balance of power. Larijani said the Velayat-e Faqih based in Iran is in charge of the world of Islam and expansion is one of its goals.
Indeed, isn’t it regrettable that despite disclosure of the mullahs’ terrorism on European soil, the regime’s appeasers are still trying to find a way to deal with the regime and seeking to aid the murderers of the Iranian people?
We tell them: Gentlemen, if you don’t want to stand by the people of Iran, at least do not victimize the security of your own citizens.
Why do you aid a regime that poses threats to European capitals?
This is our word: Respect the Iranian people’s desire to overthrow the regime and establish freedom and democracy.

Let the hands of this criminal regime be cut off from Iran’s oil revenues which is our national asset. Every barrel of oil the regime sells, is a lash on the back of the people of Iran and a bullet piercing the heart of the people of the region.

Furthermore, what are the regime’s successive missile tests about? What is their aim? Anything but blackmailing and threatening regional and global peace?
The UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday was convened to address this issue which is in flagrant violation of UN resolution 2231. Instead of answering questions, the regime’s representative at the UNSC complained about the Mojahedin and their just resistance against the religious fascist regime.
Therefore, the IRGC, the MOIS, and the regime’s state propaganda machine must be placed on the U.S. List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations and the terror list of the European Union.

The regime’s financial lifelines which fund Khamenei’s apparatus, the IRGC, the terrorist Ouds Force, and the religious Gestapo must be blocked.
The dossier of the regime’s continuing crimes against humanity must be referred to the UN Security Council, and Khamenei, Rouhani and other regime leaders must face justice.

Respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 70th anniversary of which was celebrated a few days ago, obliges world governments to reject and isolate a regime which is the most flagrant violator of human rights in today’s world and has been condemned 65 times by the United Nations.

Of course, as I have repeatedly declared, the regime’s overthrow, democratic change, and establishment of a free Iran, are tasks already undertaken by the Iranian people and Resistance. They are impatient in fulfilling this duty and will most definitely make it come true.

Dear friends,
Parallel to the drastic weakening of the Iranian regime’s status over the past year, the status of the democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, elevated both inside Iran and abroad.
Our fellow compatriots from Iran and around the world demonstrated an amazing support for the Iranian Resistance’s Satellite TV telethon, another clear sign of the status of the Resistance and its popularity and broad-based social support.
Hail to you, the supporters and sympathizers of the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance, some of whom are present in today’s gathering. You demonstrated the power of national solidarity against the anti-Iranian mullahs’ regime in the INTV’s telethon.

Yes, our fellow compatriots in Isfahan, Kazerun, Shush, Ahvaz and other cities are crying out, “turning out backs to the enemy and our faces towards our homeland.” You realized this same patriotic chant.
Political prisoners, workers, and teachers gave their food money; a dear mother sold her house in the city’s central neighborhoods and moved to the southern district to give the difference to the telethon. Our compatriots from inside Iran, including the Kurds, Baluchis, Azeris, Arabs, Turkomans, etc.
Some got loans and others gave their annual savings to the telethon as they had done in previous years. It is difficult to pick examples from among them.
A heroine, a member of a resistance unit in Tehran, who is a university graduate but earns her living by peddling on the streets, was sad that she did not have much to give. And of course, many members of the resistance units have similar conditions.
That reminds me that once, Massoud (Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance) urged the PMOI members to cut on their essential everyday expenses and give to resistance units, so that they would not have to sell their kidneys.
In this way, members of resistance units in Iran were discouraged from selling their kidneys to pay for their daily expenses.

I hail the resistance units, and the refugees and the sympathizers who said they do not have any money to give, but are prepared to give their lives. They declared their readiness to Massoud (Rajavi) and asked him to register their names.

In this way, the selfless supporters of the PMOI in Canada, the U.S., Australia, Europe and other countries give their possessions. In fact, they are fighting the regime to achieve freedom of their people with all their earnings and properties.
Really, where are those who claimed that western and Arab governments pay for the expenses of the Iranian Resistance and the PMOI? What do they have to say now?
We just suffice to curse the mullahs’ deceptive regime, its slander and misinformation campaigns, and anyone who broadcasts or republishes them.
This is a measure out of desperation in the face of such glorious and expansive movement of the Iranian people for freedom, and you are the firm backbone of this movement.

And I hail you, the PMOI vanguards who are preparing for the ultimate liberation of your enchained nation with more honesty and sincerity than ever before.
Every day, you are reinforcing your resolve for the major project of freedom, democracy and equality in Iran.
You are thinking of nothing but freedom of your suffering nation and homeland and in this struggle, you have created new humane values to have this magnificent objective realized.
The secret to your tirelessness, hopefulness, livelihood, and firm resolve is your power to give and sacrifice for the freedom of the people of Iran. And I am confident that you are going to bring about a beautiful and glorious future for your people and your country.

And hail to our compatriots in various provinces who continue their protests and uprisings, and have kept the flames of uprisings alight.
The demonstrations of Haft Tappeh Sugarcane workers and the start of the second month of strikes and protests by the brave steel workers of Ahvaz have incited more resistance and protests all across the country.
Those who addressed the mullahs, calling them monkeys who are sitting on the Prophet’s pulpit.
Steel workers wore shrouds and took to the street, chanting, “Down with the oppressor, hail to the worker,” and “we will never surrender.”

We also hail the honorable truck drivers and truck owners who tirelessly continue their strikes and recently held the fourth round of their nationwide protests. And hail to the poor but steadfast farmers of Isfahan who rose up again. We hail the conscious students of Iran who staged sit-ins and protests on the Student Day on December 7.

As Massoud Rajavi has said, “What we and our nation are grappling with today, is the continuation of the same historical path and struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed, between those who suppress and those who are suppressed, between a nation demanding her sovereignty and minimum rights and freedoms on the one hand and the Velayat-e Faqih regime that has stepped up the oppression of kings and feudal masters to the extreme under the name of Islam, religion and the Quran.”

And I finally want to remind all of you, the protesters, the sympathizers of the PMOI, and members of resistance units, of a fundamental truth.
The truth is that, today, the regime’s existence is in danger more than any other time in its history.
Iran’s society is also more prepared than any other time and simmering.
But you must know!
You must know that it is your willpower for struggle that is going to determine how the present volatile situation will evolve into the overthrow of the mullahs’ dictatorship.
The secret to victory is the united struggle of the people of Iran and the evolution of uprisings pioneered by resistance units and councils.
The wall of repression will fall apart with the force of sacrifice and unity.
So, onwards to a free and democratic Iran!

Hail to freedom!
Hail to the people of Iran!
Hail to all of you!