Maryam Rajavi’s speech at the Italian Parliament

Maryam Rajavi at the Italian Parliament

Honorable Members of Parliament,

It is a pleasure to be among you today.

I came here to talk about the uprising of the Iranian people for freedom as well as the clerical regime’s attempts to suppress the uprising. However, yesterday, Ashraf City, where 3,500 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reside in Iraq, was attacked by the Iraqi police after several months of being under siege.

Sample ImageFollowing is the text of speech by Mrs. Mayam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance at the Italian Parliament on July 28, 2009.

Honorable Members of Parliament,

It is a pleasure to be among you today.

I came here to talk about the uprising of the Iranian people for freedom as well as the clerical regime’s attempts to suppress the uprising. However, yesterday, Ashraf City, where 3,500 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reside in Iraq, was attacked by the Iraqi police after several months of being under siege.

I think this is another facet of the suppression that the Iranian people face inside Iran. [The regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali] Khamenei who failed to extinguish the flames of the Iranian people’s uprising through suppression, arrests and killings, has moved to compensate for the defeat by dictating new terms for carrying out a repression and massacre in Ashraf. After all, Ashraf is the heart of the Iranian people’s aspirations and is also an inspiration for social movements inside Iran.

During the attack against Ashraf, police used live ammunition, tear gas, pepper gas, batons, and beat camp residents. As a result of shots fired, four people have thus far been killed. 30 have been arrested or disappeared and 300 more have been wounded, with some of them in severely critical condition.

Attacking people who were under siege and had no way of defending themselves constitutes a crime against humanity. Khamenei and [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki are carrying out this attack on the anniversary of massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 in the regime’s prisons.

This morning as I was coming here, I was informed that Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the mullahs’ parliament and a Khamenei ally, while announcing a renewed affirmation of the suppression and massacre of the people’s uprising, officially praised the Iraqi government for its crimes and slaughtering of Iranian dissidents in Ashraf.

Ashraf residents have been acknowledged as “protected persons” under the Fourth Geneva Convention and enjoy all the rights stipulated in international laws and the International Humanitarian Law.

The Iraqi government’s action is a clear violation of international law and a sign of kowtowing to the demands of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. The international community, and especially the US, has a grave responsibility to prevent this catastrophe.

I urge governments in the US and EU to vehemently condemn the plots of the clerical regime and the Iraqi government’s illegal action, adopt the necessary measures to immediately end this catastrophe, and call on the Iraqi government to comply with the [April 24, 2009] European Parliament resolution.

I invite the UN Secretary General and all human rights organizations to immediately send a delegation to Ashraf.

There is no justification for this attack. As I said yesterday, simultaneous with the nationwide uprising of the Iranian people, Ashraf residents declared their readiness to the American and Iraqi officials to return to Iran if their conditions are met.

They want the Iranian regime to send an official letter to the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and governments in the US and Iraq, declaring its commitment that upon their return to Iran, Ashraf residents will be protected from arrests, prosecution, torture, hanging, and any form of judicial investigation or cases, in addition to having freedom of expression. This commitment must be confirmed and monitored by the aforementioned bodies.

In the current circumstances, the American government must assume the protection of Ashraf residents.

The Iranian Resistance and the families of those who were killed yesterday by the Iraqi forces, will file legal complaints against al-Maliki in relevant international tribunals.

My Dear Friends,

The cries of “Death to Khamenei” echoing all over Iran reflect the Iranian people’s demands for fundamental change and the uprooting of the regime in its entirety.

The uprising of the Iranian people has until now confirmed several realities: The instability and faltering state of the regime, the Iranian society’s readiness for change, the regime’s lack of a social base, the fact that the regime cannot be reformed, and lastly the invalidation of the West’s policy vis-à-vis Iran.

This uprising was the outpouring of 80 million Iranians’ rage against 30 years of the religious dictatorship’s suppression, terror, economic destruction, poverty, and corruption.

What drives Iranian dynamics is the irreconcilable antagonism between people and the regime. On July 17, people even used the Friday Prayers as an opportunity and transformed it into a movement against the regime. People refused to parrot official chants against the US and the PMOI, which were broadcast over loud speakers there, and instead chanted, “Death to Russia.”

The rifts and chasms at the top of the regime’s hierarchy is a reflection of the profound antagonism between people and the rulers. This rift has provided the groundwork for the spread of protests, placing the regime behind a deadly impasse. Today, most clerics are opposing Khamenei. Ayatollah Montazeri, Ruhollah Khomeini’s former designated successor, has called for the dismissal of Khamenei. On July 17, during the Friday Prayers, [former mullahs’ president Ali Akbar Hashemi] Rafsanjani confirmed the existence of a crisis within the regime and confessed that the regime does not have popular support or legitimacy.

The course of events is irreversible, because…

First, the feuds within the regime have crept into the highest levels between Khamenei and Rafsanjani, and divisions have become irreconcilable. Even Khamenei’s own factions is fraught with divisions.

Secondly, the regime’s internal animosities has led to the shattering of the Supreme Leader’s curse [i.e. fears of him have dispelled], the invalidation of the presumption of stability along with the illusion of the regime’s immunity.

Third, the uprising has created a fundamental gap between the regime and the younger generation which grew up under its rule, which cannot be filled. This has turned the balance of power in favor of the people and against the regime.

All indications point to the fact that regardless of the uprising’s ebbs and flows, the beginning of the end for the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule) has come.

On the international arena, the fallacy of the clerical regime’s “stability” crumbled. Recent events demonstrated the inability of the clerical regime to reform as well as its inability to survive in the future. Therefore, the only option is democratic change by the people and the Iranian Resistance. The uprising showed that this option is within reach.

The policy of appeasement towards the regime provided it with the opportunity to vigorously quell internal protests, speed up its nuclear weapons project, and step up terrorism and fundamentalism.

The batons striking the faces and bodies of young Iranian men and women on the streets, the tear and pepper gasses and other weapons used to suppress the protests, as well as the equipment used to listen in and control the telephone and internet system and to send parasites, were all purchased from European countries.

It is high time for the EU to stop negotiations with the regime, suspend diplomatic and economic ties with it, and withdraw its ambassadors from Tehran, until they stop the suppression, torture, hangings, release all political prisoners, and bow to a free UN-supervised election in the context of popular sovereignty. The EU should also stop selling commodities and services to the regime that it can utilize for suppression.

The Iranian Resistance’s Stance

Our goal is to reject the entire regime with the least amount of bloodshed. Rejection of religious dictatorship and the establishment of a republic based on the separation of church and state form the grounds of our cooperation with others.

We welcome anyone who renounces the velayat-e faqih and instead acknowledges popular sovereignty. We even assess the defeated factions of the regime using this criterion, despite their collaboration in the regime’s crimes. On this basis, [the Iranian Resistance’s Leader] Massoud Rajavi issued a message to the mullahs’ Assembly of Experts, calling on them to dismiss Khamenei and temporarily install Montazeri in his place so that the path for a free UN-supervised election could be paved, and later dismantle the Assembly of Experts, thus separating the members from the regime’s crimes. This was a wise solution.

With regards to Mr. Moussavi, we have also declared that we would welcome him to whatever extent that he distances himself from the Supreme Leader. Regardless of all the differences, we defend their rights against any aggression by the regime.

Dear Friends,
Honorable MPs,

You and the majority of the Italian Parliament, along with 2,000 other parliamentarians across Europe, have supported the Iranian people and Resistance in their darkest hour. Today, the validity of your stance in support of democratic change has been confirmed.

The clerical regime is more vulnerable today than ever and the international community can play a more effective role against the violent suppression of innocent and defenseless people of Iran by taking a firm stance.

We demand an end to the religious dictatorship, and pursue the establishment of a democratic state, endowed with political pluralism, respect for fundamental rights, separation of church and state, and relations with all countries. We also seek a non-nuclear Iran, and to create such a country we count on the support of friends like you.

Thank you.