Speech at Greetings to French Mayors and elected Representatives of France

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year and with best wishes,
I am privileged in hosting you here and welcome all of you to the home of the Resistance, which is your own home. I thank you for your congratulatory messages and on my part, I want to congratulate all of you on the advent of New Year. I wish you greatest success and prosperity.

The past year was a tumultuous one, with very difficult moments as well as victorious ones.

Last year, we lost many of our friends and loved ones in Ashraf and Liberty. But we made a pledge to continue in their path.

On the other hand, 2013 was a year of brilliant solidarity between the French and Iranian freedom fighters, which we saw materialize in your support, mayors and the elected representatives, for the resistance and Ashrafis.

With your active presence in conferences and meetings, you representatives of the people of France highlighted France’s genuine values, namely freedom, resistance and human rights. Through your courageous speeches, you demonstrated that these values are alive.

I know that despite enormous work and heavy responsibilities you devoted your energy and attention to the Iranian Resistance.

You led the way in upholding the rights of Ashrafis. While what you demand is dramatically different from what the prevailing policy dictates, you were not disappointed and moved forward.

The Iranian people and nation are grateful to you and will never forget what you did.

Because your efforts have created a protective shield for the residents of camp Liberty.

Your names will be recorded in the history of our nation forever.

Despite its enormous challenges, 2013 was at the same time a year of exercising resolve, a year in which the Resistance triumphed over acquiescence and the hope overcame despair.

Last year showed as never before the righteousness and correctness of this struggle and the astounding capacity of members of the Resistance to persevere. They became an example for the people of the region.

Last year, Ashraf evolved from being a city into an epic for our country, and is now inspiring the resistance of the Iranian people.

Last year, every one heard the sound of the regime fracturing and the power of the Supreme Leader crumbling.

After a three-decade-long clandestine nuclear program, the regime was compelled to go to the negotiating table and suspend part of its nuclear program under the pressure of severe economic and social crises as well as the weight of international sanctions and fear of popular uprisings.

You all know that the Iranian Resistance was the main factor in exposing the mullahs’ secret nuclear program.

We were the first party demanding the imposition of sanctions on the regime and the referral of the nuclear file to the Security Council. For this reason, when the mullahs signed the Geneva Accord, we welcomed it as a step back.

But, we believe that the West must not adopt a weak policy; it must force the mullahs to shut down all their nuclear sites once and for all.

Under these circumstances, the nuclear retreat will expedite their overthrow if the international community exercises sufficient decisiveness to confront the regime. Otherwise, this process is reversible.

The ruling theocracy, under the so-called moderate mullah Hassan Rouhani, has stepped up crackdown and executions in an unprecedented fashion in a bid to overcome the crisis of overthrow and to neutralize the impact of its retreat. Regrettably, western countries continue to turn a blind eye to the reality.

The west must not ignore freedom, human rights and the Iranian Resistance on the pretext of nuclear talks. Western countries must not maintain their relations with the religious dictatorship at the expense of the Iranian people

The regime is fearful of a link being established between the organized resistance and popular protests.

It is witness to the fact that the heroes and heroines of Ashraf are in the hearts and homes of every Iranian.

For this reason, in tandem with its puppet government in Iraq, the Iranian regime perpetrated a massacre at Ashraf and resorted to successive missile attacks on Camp Liberty. It seeks to cause massive casualties in the ranks of the Resistance to force it into submission.

The mullahs have tried and continue to try to launch aggression and cause bloodbaths in the region to put a lid on their internal crises. In Syria, the Revolutionary Guards have waged an inhuman war against the people of that country, who are yearning for freedom. This of course, cannot be sustained.

In Iraq, the Maliki government and the Iranian regime are trying to incite a sectarian war and crush the people in of dissident provinces by claiming they are linked with Al-Qaeda.

Dear Friends,

From all indications, 2014 is a decisive year as far as Iran is concerned. For this reason, we must boost our efforts.

We must compel the regime to retreat and be permanently denied the capacity to obtain nuclear weapons.

We must expose in the media and among the world public the real nature of the mullahs’ regime, hidden behind a veneer of smiles and moderate-posturing, seeking to continue executions and torture. We must create a powerful shield to protect the heroes and heroines of Liberty.

To do so, we must demand that the United Nations, the U.S. and France compel the Iraqi government to release the Ashraf hostages. They must force Iraqi to provide the security provisions for Liberty which we had requested:

– Returning 17,500 T-walls and bunkers;

– Transferring protective helmets, vests and medical equipment from Ashraf to Liberty;

– Building dual-layer roofs for the trailers;

– Allowing construction; and

– Expanding the area of Liberty to increase protection against missile attacks.

France has the ability to take these issues to the Security Council. It can also demand that Liberty residents be put under international protection until resettlement and that an independent investigation be carried out into the September 1 massacre at Ashraf.

To reach these objectives in the New Year, your support is critical.

Our power lies neither in political nor in financial support by world powers or multinational corporations, simply because we don’t have any of it and we don’t want any of it.

No, our power lies in our solidarity, shaped around common values and by virtue of the blood that has been shed and the sacrifices that have been made.

With this solidarity we can open the future doors and we want to take a determining step in our struggle in 2014.

As we have said repeatedly, we are working together to achieve common values: freedom, equality and fraternity. We are working toward the establishment of a republic based on the separation of religion and state. We seek pluralism, gender equality, abolition of death penalty and a non-nuclear Iran.

I particularly hope that given your qualifications and popularity, French voters once again bestow you with their trust in the upcoming election.

I again thank you for being here and wish you prosperity and success in the New Year.