Conference at the Italian Senate featuring senators and dignitaries

Maryam Rajavi: Three months full of selflessness, sacrifice, and suffering are the most important reasons that point to the regime’s inevitable overthrow

Senator Giulio Terzi,
Senator Marco Scoria,
Honorable Italian legislators,
Dear friends,

In the history of Iran, December 7 marks the assault by Shah’s soldiers on Tehran University in 1953 after the coup against the nationalist government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq. Three students were killed on the university campus. December 7 has thus been recorded in the history of Iran as Students’ Day. Over the last 69 years, students and youths have been protesting the Shah’s and mullahs’ regimes on this day.

The responsibility of Italy and Europe toward the Iran uprising

In such circumstances, your initiative to hold this conference and support the Iranian people’s uprising is very valuable.
Your initiative answers the fundamental question that when the people of Iran are fighting against the religious dictatorship, what are the responsibilities of Europe, and Italy in particular? I believe
The Iranian people’s uprising will enter its fourth month in a few days. Three months full of selflessness, sacrifice, and suffering are the most important and objective reasons that point to the regime’s inevitable overthrow.

The point of no return

All developments confirm that the regime has reached the point of no return and is in its final phase.
The uprising is not a sudden incident that lacks roots. Instead, it is the product of the Iranian people’s struggle in the last four decades, for which 120,000 freedom fighters sacrificed their lives.
Since 2017 uprising, several significant incidents have built up the substantial and explosive anti-regime rage in Iranian society. The first was the massacre of at least 1,500 protesters in 2019, followed by the IRGC’s deliberate downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner. Then, came 550,000 deaths caused by the spread of the coronavirus, exacerbated due to Khamenei’s decisions.
Another was appointing as the regime’s president (Ebrahim Raisi), the executioner of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners.
There has been zero economic growth over the last decade; the investment rate is negative, and the value of the national currency has plunged 34 folds.

And in the past five years, the country’s low-income population has tripled. The brutal suppression of women and youth and the aggravation of poverty and unemployment have distraught everyone.
The current uprising is the eruption of anger and pain caused by these factors. As a result, it is irreversible, irrepressible, and moving toward the regime’s overthrow.

The missing link in European politics

Now, in such circumstances, the question is why Europe, beyond the verbal condemnations, has not yet been freed itself from the chains of relations of the past four decades, i.e., accommodating and giving concessions to the clerical regime.
The European Union designated some of the regime’s officials and agencies as terrorist entities in the past weeks. These steps, however, are not proportional to the uprising that has shaken the pillars of the mullahs’ regime. Nor are they commensurate with the regime’s crimes in the last three months, only one of which is murdering 70 children ranging in age from two to 17.
The missing link in European policy is the recognition of the Iranian people’s desire to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and establish a democratic republic.

The European Union’s current policy seems to be the product of an unrealistic assessment that the mullahs can contain the uprising and continue their faltering rule.
The same mistake that the West committed during the time of the Shah is being repeated now. The Shah’s dictatorship, which boasted a 400,000-strong and well-equipped army, did not stand the will of the Iranian people. The same is true today. Neither the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), nor its missiles and drones, terrorism, and crimes in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen will save Khamenei.

Unfortunately, European countries continue to engage with the regime.
The regime’s embassies, which are centers of espionage and terrorism, continue their operations, and even the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence and the terrorist Quds Force have free reins to carry out their activities in Europe.
Unfortunately, in addition to short-term economic interests, the European Union’s policy has been adjusted to obtain a nuclear agreement with the mullahs. An approach focusing on dialogue and appeasement has not worked from the outset, but today it is more destructive than ever.

Demands by the Iranian people and Resistance

The regime’s efforts to obtain the atomic bomb, its regional aggression, and international terrorism be countered only through a firm policy. The most important indicator is the reinforcement of the UN Security Council resolutions. Two European Union countries and four G7 countries can do that. Italy is a member of both groups.
As one of the 54 members of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Italy can vote to expel the regime from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the December 14 meeting of the ECOSOC.
In addition to killing children, the regime has recently imprisoned and tortured hundreds of teenagers under 18, for which it should be expelled from UNICEF as well. Italy can also take the lead in such an initiative.
Another decisive measure, which is the European Union’s responsibility and Italy’s in particular, is to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity. I urge the Italian Senate to compel the government to pursue this objective by adopting a binding resolution.

Toward a democratic republic

Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the regime’s alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has been fighting for 41 years to overthrow the mullahs and establish a republic based on the people’s vote and the separation of religion and state.
These are the same demands for which millions of Iranians take to the streets today.
We vigorously defend the freedoms and equal rights of Iran’s ethnic minorities and stress their right to autonomy within the framework of Iran’s territorial integrity.

The PMOI has been at the center of this coalition. It has denounced and condemned the regime’s abuse of Islam from the very beginning by advocating a genuine, tolerant, and democratic Islam.
That our movement has been able to resist the mullahs’ misogynistic dictatorship over several decades is because it believes in freedom and equality.
We have always said no to compulsory religion, no to compulsory veil, and no to a compulsory government.
On the other hand, we have said yes to the separation of religion and state, yes to freedom of attire, and yes to a republic and democracy.

The first time, after the regime imposed the compulsory veil in March 1979, less than a month after Khomeini came to power, the PMOI women who wore headscarves rose up to protest and demonstrate against the compulsory veil alongside other women. I, personally, was present in that demonstration.
Our Resistance has paved the way for women to enter the struggle from day one, who have fulfilled their decisive role as vanguards and a force for change in all spheres of the resistance
I have said many times that Iranian women would pioneer the struggle to defeat the religious dictatorship.
What the world sees clearly in the streets of Iran today is the continuation of that long, painful, blood-drenched, and glorious struggle.
Women make up 57% of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is the Resistance’s parliament in exile and composed of various political tendencies.
According to the NCRI platform, after the overthrow of this regime, a provisional government will administer the affairs of the country for a maximum of six months.
During this period, free elections will be held for a Constituent and Legislative Assembly that will draft the constitution of the new republic.

Dear friends,
I will conclude my speech by honoring the memory of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, the NCRI representative in Italy.
The regime’s terrorists dispatched to Rome on Khamenei’s orders assassinated him in March 1993. The perpetrators of this crime, including the regime’s then ambassador to Italy, like other crimes of the regime, have gone unpunished.
Today, thousands of Iranian youths continue his path in the struggle against the ruling tyranny, a revolution with an inevitable victory.
I thank you all very much.