The mullahs’ regime at the overthrow impasse, the democratic alternative marching towards victory
Maryam Rajavi addresses first day of Free Iran World Summit
On Saturday, July 10, 2021, the three-day Free Iran World Summit- 2021 convened with the participation of Iranians and supporters of the Resistance from more than 50,000 locations in 105 countries around the world. Also participating were thousands of members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) residing at Ashraf 3 in Albania. Attendants tuned in for the virtual summit across the globe, from Sydney to Hawaii with a 20-hour time difference.
As the Free Iran Summit began, thousands of Iranians assembled in Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, and other Iranian rallies in 16 capitals and major cities were simultaneously livestreamed with the Free Iran Summit, including in Paris, Washington, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo, Vienna, Rome and Geneva. The participants were following the event through large LED screens at the rallies.
At the beginning of the event, video messages from more than 1,000 members of the MEK Resistance Units from the heart of the enchained nation of Iran were broadcast on the LED screens, amid the regime’s repression and suppression. The videos showed young rebellious units expressing their unshakable resolve to overthrow the religious dictatorship. Live communication with and speeches from a number of members of the Resistance Units within Iran deeply moved and energized the participants at the summit.
Dozens of prominent U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties and several former European ministers, including former foreign ministers of France, Italy, and Poland, former British and French defense ministers, and the leader of Europe’s largest People’s Party attended and contributed to the Summit.
In her speech at the Summit, Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), summed up the Iranian people and Resistance’s demands in three words: freedom, democracy and equality. She called on the international community to recognize the struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow the regime and their attempts to make these three ideas a reality in Iran.
The full text of the speech is as follows:
Dear compatriots,
Courageous Resistance Units,
Dear friends,
I welcome you all to the annual gathering of the Iranian Resistance and extend my warmest greetings to our compatriots and friends of the Iranian Resistance around the world.
In this summit, we hear the voices of the Iranian people, the rebels and protesters, as well as freedom advocates who say that the mullahs’ regime is at an impasse and staring at its impending overthrow. The Iranian people and their Resistance are advancing towards victory and will ultimately liberate Iran.
The final phase with the henchman of the 1988 massacre
We are on the eve of the anniversary of the Iranian people’s uprising on July 21, 1952. An uprising against the Shah and the monarchical dictatorship to bring Iran’s great nationalist leader Mohammad Mossadeq back to power.
On the same day in 1981, Massoud Rajavi, the Leader of the Iranian Resistance, announced the establishment of the National Council of Resistance of Iran against the Khomeini regime and religious fascism.
We are standing at a watershed moment in history when everything is possible, and major upheavals are in the making.
Our society is besieged by religious tyranny, the Coronavirus, and hunger, but it is also harboring within itself volcanic uprisings.
The Iranian Resistance had previously predicted and announced how the clerical regime would purge and eliminate its internal factions on its path to solidify power in the terminal phase of its rule. The truth in this prognosis was proved after the regime’s election sham, which marked the greatest defeat and disgrace in the clerical regime’s history. To the extent that mullah Ahmad Alam-ol Hoda, Khamenei’s representative and Friday prayer leader in Mashhad, clearly said that those who do not vote or cast void ballots are effectively voting for the Mojahedin.
Yes, the mullahs’ religious fascism chose the henchman of the 1988 massacre to solidify their rule and close ranks, to preserve their power, and to prevent their inevitable overthrow in the face of looming uprisings. But they have actually dug their own graves. They are like a scorpion that stings itself after being surrounded by flames. Only the regime’s fear of the uprisings and the supreme leader’s political demise can explain Raisi’s taking office.
Someone whom even Hossein Ali Montazeri, Khomeini’s ousted heir, said had committed the worst crimes in the regime and that his name would in the future be listed among history’s criminals. Raisi was among the perpetrators of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, 90% of whom were affiliated with the PMOI/MEK. Before and after that, he was involved in the torture and execution of thousands of other people.
Now, let us examine the regime’s current situation: A henchman heads the Executive Branch; an executioner and a notorious torturer by the name of Ejeii heads the Judiciary Branch, and a bloodthirsty mullah is at the helm of the entire regime. Indeed, the squad of cannibals is now complete. This configuration is more suggestive and emblematic than thousands of other signs that attest to the final phase of the regime’s overthrow.
Khamenei had already claimed that to overcome all the regime’s difficulties, he needs a young Hezbollahi government to take office. Now, he has brought a mass murderer who is himself at the center of the regime’s problems. The Velayat-e Faqih regime is thus digging a deeper hole. This mullah bears no semblance to humanity. Infamous as “the life-taking judge,”(1) Raisi is a robot in the regime’s Judiciary, programmed only to kill.
Earlier, Khamenei had acknowledged that to avoid fighting in Tehran and other Iranian cities, the regime needs to wage wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. So, he has resorted to nuclear and missile programs and export of terrorism to the region. But Khamenei is treading a path that leads straight to the graveyard.
Three major developments
All this is the regime’s reaction to an era distinguished by three major developments.
First, the regime is politically and socially in a state of emergency, grappling with rampant crises;
Second, Iranian society has entered a phase of upheavals and uprisings since December 2017.
And third, a nationwide network has emerged, which is comprised of courageous, selfless rebels who keep alight the flames of the Resistance Units’ fight against symbols of religious fascism.
Therefore, in the new era, the hostility and enmity between the Iranian regime and society will intensify more than ever before, just as the deposed Shah resorted to declaring martial law and appointing the military General Az’hari as Prime Minister but ended up with an outcome contrary to his expectations.
In this era, pseudo-solutions and fabricated or virtual alternatives will not have the critical space needed to maneuver.
Fake notions of moderation and reformism will lose color, and the only brilliant option remaining will be a revolution and the regime’s overthrow.
Yes, the time has come for upheavals and the rising of the battalions of the Liberation Army. Just as it is promised in the national anthem of France, La Marseillaise, and was evident in the American War of Independence.
Yes, the clerical regime is staring at an impasse leading to overthrow. The Iranian people and Resistance are marching towards victory. And Iran will be free.
Freedom is the answer for Iran
In the face of religious fascism, which looks for a solution among detested henchmen and mass murderers, the Iranian people find their answer and their victorious solution in a freedom-loving Resistance and in establishing a free Iran.
Yes, the same force and resilience, that under the leadership of Massoud Rajavi, has helped this movement break through the most complex situations and the most significant difficulties in these 40 years, will bring victory and freedom to our people.
To achieve this glorious objective, the Iranian Resistance’s asset and greatest backing are the furious masses who are not satisfied with anything less than the overthrow of this regime.
Our asset is the rebellion and revolt of the army of youths who took to the streets in November 2019.
And our power comes from a nationwide network of Resistance Units who have been working ceaselessly all days of the year, and in the year 2020, they doubled the number of their activities and operations compared to the previous year, in order to break the spell of repression.
Although our people’s share of the mullahs’ world has been nothing but high prices and hunger, as well as flogging and executions, but in the world of the Resistance, our people have the backing of not one, not two, not three but 1,000 Ashrafs, or 1,000 roaring bastions of freedom in Iran and around the world.
In this historic confrontation between tyranny and freedom, the mullahs’ problem, as they have repeatedly declared, is the PMOI’s organizational structure. This is just what they were trying to do in the 1988 massacre; they sought to eradicate the PMOI’s organizational structure in prisons and torture chambers.
Yes, we are an organized Resistance. And this is what drives the mullahs mad. These united and strong relations have preserved the People’s Mojahedin during these decades and during the 14 years of perseverance in Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.
After the uprising in December 2017-January 2018 and once again after the November 2019 uprising, the mullahs’ supreme leader spoke out furiously against the PMOI as the entity leading the uprisings.
And it was in these uprisings that the strategy of the PMOI and the Resistance Units was tested in the streets and its validity was proven.
The role of the Iranian Resistance in contemporary history
Dear friends,
Over the past forty years, the NCRI has been tested numerous times for its freedom, independence, durability, and capability. It has played a unique role in Iran’s contemporary history and is the viable alternative for establishing a democratic republic.
According to its platform, six months after the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime, the NCRI will hand power over to the Constituent and Legislative Assembly to start drafting the Constitution of the new Republic.
When Khomeini was executing the generation of countless freedom-lovers and wiping out all political groups, and when all seemed lost, the Iranian Resistance and the National Liberation Army emerged as a decisive force, compelling Khomeini to drink the poison chalice of the ceasefire with Iraq. Otherwise, Khomeini intended to reach the Mediterranean and conquer Jerusalem, as he said, through Karbala.
It was again this Resistance that saved the world from the threat of the regime’s atomic bomb. Had it not made at least 120 series of revelations about the mullahs’ secret nuclear sites and activities, the mullahs would have plunged the world into a terrible situation by acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Thirty years ago, the Iranian Resistance made the world aware of the significant threat of religious fundamentalism embodied by the mullahs’ regime and warned against the spread of terrorism around the globe. A recent example of the regime’s terrorism was the attempted bombing of the Free Iran rally in June 2018 in Villepinte near Paris. One of the regime’s sitting diplomats has been sentenced to 20 years in Belgium for this terrorist attempt.
On the other hand, by presenting the reality of Islam as a genuine religion of mercy and liberation, the PMOI provides an effective antithesis against clerical fundamentalism and religious tyranny. For this reason, the Iranian Resistance is focused on the solidarity of Shiites and Sunnis in Iran and throughout the Middle East. This movement is the endpoint of religious division and discrimination and the starting point of the brotherhood of various religions and creeds. It is the only example across the Middle East and Muslim countries where a Muslim opposition movement can defend the principle of separation of religion and state.
The Iranian Resistance also defends with a clear plan the right to autonomy for all oppressed ethnic minorities within the framework of Iran’s unity and territorial integrity.
Likewise, the Iranian Resistance holds up the banner of just relations based on respect for independence, national sovereignty, and mutual interests with its neighbors and the world.
The attendance of more than a thousand current and former parliamentarians and senior officials from 5 continents at the Free Iran three-day summit in solidarity with the Iranian people’s desire attests to this reality. I extend my sincere greetings to all of them.
The Iranian Resistance’s Experience
Dear compatriots,
The Iranian Resistance’s experience is a concise summary of the Iranian people’s 120-year struggle for freedom.
The great experience of the Iranian people and Resistance since the outset on June 20, 1981, can be summed up in the phrase “neither the Shah nor the Sheikh (mullahs).” This is the true, essential, and necessary meaning of freedom and independence in action.
Our 40 years of experience has proven that religious dictatorship does not lead to reform or transformation.
The so-called reformist and moderate currents, or the sham election, have been used as a pretext to conceal the objective conditions ready to overthrow the regime. And now, Khamenei’s rejection of the so-called reformists means that the conditions for the overthrow can no longer be denied.
The experience of the Iranian Resistance during forty years of a fierce, blood-drenched struggle against the clerical regime teaches us that when an individual, group, or party ignores the fact, for reasons of expediency or self-interest, that the mullahs’ regime is the main enemy of Iran and Iranians, it gradually moves closer to this inhuman enemy.
They then attack the NCRI and the People’s Mojahedin in various forms to the point of ultimately showing their true color and calling for the annihilation of the PMOI. And they cling to absolutely anything to prove in their minds that the clerical regime is much better than the PMOI.
Like the regime’s security and intelligence organs, some claim, after adopting an intellectual pose or under the guise of research or journalism, that the ruling regime in Iran has no alternative! This is the best way to give grist to the enemy’s mill.
Internationally, the 40-year experience of the Iranian Resistance leaves no doubt that the threat for government policies has always been complacency with this regime; the danger of giving in to the regime’s blackmail, and sacrificing the Iranian people’s Resistance and human rights for commercial and political interests.
And the experience of forty years of formidable struggle proves that the ruling regime will not change unless it is overthrown through an uprising.
Having understood this need, the Mojahedin pave the way for the Iranian people’s freedom through greater dedication and devotion to the cause and making more sacrifices to multiply their resolve and strengthen the struggle.
It is through such dedication that in the darkness cast by religious fascism, the overthrowing force, one, achieves the competence to engage in the struggle to overthrow the regime, and two, it qualifies itself to build a free and liberated society.
Our experience is that the exceptional value and importance of human beings devoted to an ideal, who sacrifice all their personal interests and dedicate their lives to an organized united struggle for Iran’s freedom, is priceless and cannot be exchanged with anything else.
Yes, experience teaches us that one should ignore those who preach despair about Iranian society. Instead, one should place hope with all one’s soul in the revolutionary passion of Iranian society to overthrow the regime.
It is this journey that allows us to affirm that the solution lies in this Resistance. Those who follow this path with determination will build the bridge of victory to the future and help the Iranian people win their freedom.
Believing in the human capacity
Dear friends, sisters, and brothers,
Our determination to struggle and overthrow the regime stem from our belief in human potential.
We believe that every member of this Resistance, every supporter of this movement, every member of the Resistance Units, can achieve the impossible, and every free human being who helps this movement by a pen, or a coin, or a step is decisive.
We believe that it is with the hands of our people and ours, and with the will of our people and ours, that the dream of freedom will become a political and social reality in Iran.
That is why we do not rely on the feuding within the religious fascism, nor its conflicts with Western governments.
As Massoud Rajavi, the Leader of the Iranian Resistance, says, “Since the outset, it was not this or that government in the United States or Europe who was supposed to bring us freedom on a silver platter. If they are not directly or indirectly aligned with the Shah and the mullahs, against us and our nation, and they do not throw stones at us, that is enough for us.”
We bow to any person or party, or group that seeks to overthrow the regime and establish freedom in Iran. And we never have and will never give preference to our group’s interests over what can more quickly free Iran from its captivity. It is not our policy to wait and see. On the contrary, we have always taken practical initiative.
For example, on gender equality, we have already started to implement what we want for tomorrow’s society, and we have cherished women’s leadership in the ranks of this Resistance.
As for a nuclear-free Iran, we have already started working on it and have closed the pathway for the regime.
And as for independence, which should be the fundamental principle governing the destiny of our country, we have already started on this path by applying it to ourselves. And we are proud to fly with our own wings and rely only on our own people.
We have never sacrificed our principles and values for political expediency.
If the PMOI had gotten along with Khomeini and accepted the Constitution of Velayat-e Faqih (or religious dictatorship), all doors would have been open to them. But everyone saw that when Khomeini asked Massoud Rajavi, a presidential candidate in 1980, to accept the religious fascism’s Constitution like other candidates had done in order to qualify (!) Massoud immediately announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.
So, in addition to boycotting the referendum on the clerical regime’s Constitution, the People’s Mojahedin announced that they would not vote in the regime’s presidential election.
Yes, far be it from the generations of the PMOI to harbor ambitions for power and positions to be the No. 1!
We have used the term “reactionary” to describe Khomeini and his regime from the beginning and have never backed down on this.
We have never backed down on the notion of “freedom.” We have been insisting on the regime’s overthrow for 40 years. And we will press on it mightily, and we will continue to hammer it so hard on the wall of repression so that it will crumble and Iran will be free.
We want freedom, democracy, and equality
But what do we and our people want? And how do we get there?
Our will and that of our people can be summed up in these three words: freedom, democracy, and equality.
As far as the international community is concerned, we ask it to recognize the struggle of the Iranian people to overthrow this regime and recognize these three concepts.
We want to bring to justice the mullahs’ supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, his president, Ebrahim Raisi, his Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii, and others responsible for the 1988 massacre on charges of committing crimes against humanity and genocide.
We urge the UN Security Council to arrange for the international prosecution of Mullah Raisi and holding him accountable for crimes against humanity and to refuse to accept his presence at the next session of the UN General Assembly.
We say that the mullahs’ regime will never give up the project of acquiring nuclear weapons, its export of terrorism, and its incitement of war in the region. Therefore, as the main threat to peace and security, it must be subjected to international sanctions under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter.
The Prosecution of Khamenei, Raisi, and Ejeii
Dear compatriots,
The historic expiry date of the religious dictatorship has arrived. Khamenei, the enemy of the Iranian people, must go. This criminal mullah killed thousands of young people during the November 2019 uprising.
He is the one who ordered the gasoline price hike and supported the successive price hike of other basic staples. He is the one who deliberately spread the Coronavirus and prevented the import of vaccines.
Khamenei bears the ultimate responsibility for the deaths of more than 320,000 of our compatriots from this disease, a disaster that was preventable to a large extent.
Just this week, the Center for Virology Research said the lack of monitoring and control of the Coronavirus in the country is starting to appear deliberate.
And it was Khamenei’s ruthless Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that killed the 176 passengers on the Ukrainian passenger jetliner.
Khamenei and his regime make millions of Iranians go hungry in order to amass billions of dollars of wealth through his foundations.
One must ask: Isn’t the country’s wealth and income far greater than the needs and shortages of the society? Then why do millions of people have to sleep on an empty stomach?
Why do thousands of oil and petrochemical workers not have sufficient salaries to pay for their minimum living needs?
Why do interns and nurses have to commit suicide because they have no salary and no rights?
And why are the Iranian people being deprived of their most basic electricity, water, and food needs?
Here, I want my voice to reach the rebellious younger generation, all my daughters and sons across Iran: never, ever, let a single day or even a single hour go by without your heart feeling the pain and sorrow of your impoverished people.
Don’t simply pass by a woman with two young children clinging to her chador, who has taken to the streets to sell her small ration of coupons.
Don’t be indifferent to the self-immolation of this teacher or that defrauded investor who cannot take it anymore or to the protests of the farmers who are fed up.
Do not ignore the thousands of children who spend 12 hours a day in Tehran’s most polluted environments, scavenging in garbage bins, where most of them live and sleep.
It is your responsibility to save and free them all. I must say that the solution and the only solution is the overthrow of the criminal mullahs’ regime.
The Resistance Units
To achieve freedom, we are not betting on chance or pinning hope on a miracle that will break the spell of repression. The campaign for the overthrow is something we build with our own hands and through immense suffering.
The strategy of this Resistance is based on the nature and politics of this regime.
This strategy, taken from the encyclopedia of the great uprising of November 2019, is the answer to religious fascism which will sustain its repression until the last moment.
We have charted our path and gleaned our principles from the same principles that govern the conditions of society.
We have illuminated the path that the oppressed society is eager to follow.
Yes, the army of the countless hungry and unemployed people have nothing to lose. And this will lead to the rise of the great army of freedom.
Let’s light up the dark house again
Let’s plant flowers in the ruined motherland again
Let us free this wounded country again
From the chains and fetters of the enemy
With such great passion and thirst for freedom, we say: The way and the solution are represented by this Resistance. The Resistance Units and those who follow this path are ready and prepared. They build the bridge of victory to the future and will win freedom for the Iranian people.
Long live freedom!
Long live the people of Iran!
Hail to all of you!