Maryam Rajavi addresses Conference in London

Maryam Rajavi, addresses Conference of Parliamentarians and Jurists in London

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Mr. Chairman,

It is indeed an honour for me to address this conference of British and European jurists and lawmakers.

It is appropriate that this distinguished assembly is taking place in a hall that once served as the seat of parliament during the London blitz; a bastion of resistance against fascism in the darkest hours of Britain’s history. Today, my people are going through the darkest hours of Iran’s history, under the rule of a brutal theocracy that has emerged as the scourge of our times.

A week ago, millions of Iranian women and men across Iran used the occasion of ancient end-of-Persian-year celebrations to resonate the chant of freedom against the ruling mullahs across the country. They again displayed the resolve of the Iranian people for change in Iran.

Like those sailing into uncharted seas in lonely nights, the brave Iranians resisting the barbaric despots have a right to wonder if their cry for freedom is finding an echo among men and women of conscience around the world.

Yes is the answer, as clearly shown today by the confluence of law and politics in your symposium and your emphasis on the need to distinguish between terrorism and legitimate resistance.

Let history remember that the conscience of Europe and Britain rejects deals over the rights of the Iranian people to resist religious tyranny.

Today, appeasement of the ruling ayatollahs in Iran is thwarting the will of the Iranian people for change. Twenty-seven years ago, as the Shah’s regime was going through its final weeks, the then-British Foreign Secretary declared that Britain must stand by the side of her ally. Today, in an echo of failed policies of the past, the British Foreign Secretary has become the most frequent high-profile Western visitor to Tehran, having made five trips in two years. The Foreign Secretary was quoted by the state-run media in Tehran as taking pride in the fact that as the Home Secretary, he had proscribed the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin. He took the lead in putting the terror tag on the Mojahedin in the European Union and personally informed the Iranian government ahead of the war in Iraq that camps belonging to the Iranian Mojahedin would be bombed. Oddly enough, the freedom-fighters bombed in those camps had received the support of a majority of members of Parliament in Britain in their endeavour to end religious tyranny in Iran.

It is to be remembered that the Iranian resistance movement had been supported by the Labour Party and its leadership for 15 years and invited to Labour’s annual conferences. We continue to enjoy strong grassroots support in the Labour Party and among its parliamentarians.

When a majority of members of the House of Commons and more than 100 Peers note in their joint statement that “supporting the Iranian Mojahedin is indispensable to the fight against terrorism,” why does the British government continue to proscribe the Mojahedin?

The Home Secretary acknowledged in February 2001 in a written note to Parliament that the Mojahedin never attacked Western or British interests.

Why did Britain join France and Germany to promise the mullahs that if they were to limit their nuclear program, the European Union would continue to keep the Mojahedin on the terrorism list? Was this not a travesty of justice and the fight against terrorism?

One must particularly note that all members of the Mojahedin in Iraq have been recognized by the Coalition member states, including Britain, as “protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention” and that the US government announced that it had found no basis to bring charges against any members of the Mojahedin.

So how can one justify keeping this label? The terrorist label against the Iranian Resistance is not only a move against an opposition movement. It is capitulation to the dictates of the ayatollahs and a barrier to change in Iran.

This designation has blocked ninety percent of the Resistance’s political, financial, social and intelligence potentials.

The signal this label sends to the mullahs is that they can continue the repression, the export of terrorism and their nuclear ambitions with impunity. And it tells my fellow Iranians that the West is standing by the despots who rule them and opposes change in Iran.

The mullahs use this label to justify the continuing executions, torture and flagrant violations of human rights in Iran. When they demanded the bombing of the combatants of freedom, this label was again their pretext.

This unjust designation is a grave breach of the principles of democracy and human rights. But it is more than that. It’s a serious political blunder. As millions of Iranians cry for freedom, the end of mullahs’ tyranny is appearing in the horizon. It is time for change.

Appeasement has exacted a high price from the Iranian people and will continue to do so, but it cannot prevent the inevitable change.

The just, and wise, policy is to stand on the side of the Iranian people and their desire for democratic change.

Today, the position of the Iranian Resistance in the past quarter-century that the clerical regime is the font of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism has become vindicated. Western officials increasingly concede that the Iranian people are yearning for freedom, that the ruling theocracy lacks any popular support and legitimacy, and that there will be no peace, stability, and progress in the Middle East without democracy in Iran.

We have before us the experience of two decades of appeasement, particularly during Khatami’s presidency. This policy has only led to the strengthening of the most hard-line factions of the ruling clique.

At the same time, no one wants a war or a foreign military intervention. They only real and effective option is to support democratic change by the Iranian people and Resistance. This is the very option I raised in my speech at the European Parliament in December.

If through continuing appeasement, the West were to allow the mullahs to advance their policies, the nuclear program and meddling in Iraq, war would become inevitable.

By virtue of its profound roots in Iran’s culture and society, with its vast and well-organized network, its military arm, the National Liberation Army of Iran, and its political alternative, the National Council of Resistance, the Iranian Resistance represents the best and the last chance for democratic change in Iran.

By committing itself to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Iranian Resistance is seeking the establishment of a pluralist democracy that advocates the separation of church and state, gender equality, and the elimination of all discrimination among ethnic and religious minorities.

In order to rebuild our devastated country, we want private investment and seek to create a situation whereby our experts abroad would return to Iran. We want equal relationships with all countries and the spread of peace, democracy and security to the rest of the world.

As the backbone of this Resistance, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran has espoused a democratic and tolerant interpretation of Islam and emerged as the best cultural and political answer to Islamic fundamentalism, which Iran’s rulers have attempted to spread to the rest of the world, especially Iraq.

For this reason, the mullahs know that they only way to forestall change is to fetter the Resistance movement. They see the continuing terrorist designation of the Mojahedin as their strongest line of defence against the tide of change. This is the continuation of appeasement, and appeasement, as history attests, paves the way to war.

One day, the proponents of appeasement sacrificed Czechoslovakia to appease a certain “Mr. Hitler.” In the words of Sir Winston Churchill, between war and dishonour, they chose dishonour. But they ended up with the war.

Today, sacrificing the Iranian Resistance as a price for rapprochement with the mullahs has the stench of a new Munich.

That’s why I believe your consensus in the face of this injustice is not just in defence of democracy, human rights and the sanctity of law, but it is also a serious initiative to prevent war.

On behalf of the victims of one of the most brutal suppressive regimes of modern history, I thank you for your dignified stance in defence of the Iranian people against a great injustice.

Dear friends,

The tree of liberty in Iran has been replenished with the blood of 120,000 of country’s bravest sons and daughters. Today, millions of Iranians crying for freedom need your support. They need each and every one of you to do whatever in your power to help remove the terror label on the Iranian Resistance.

In the name of justice, humanity and peace, I urge you to answer their call.

Thank you.