Iran: Time for UN’s embargo against mullahs’ regime

The following is the text of a speech by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran at a meeting in the Belgian Senate on October 24:

It is a great honour to be with you at the Senate. First and foremost, I would like to thank you sincerely for your courageous standing against the blackmail of the mullahs

The following is the text of a speech by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran at a meeting in the Belgian Senate on October 24:

It is a great honour to be with you at the Senate. First and foremost, I would like to thank you sincerely for your courageous standing against the blackmail of the mullahs’ regime which wanted to prevent this visit to take place.

Let me explain about the situation of human rights. I would like to tell you today about a country where human rights abuses have been legalized. Stoning, eye-gouging, amputation of limbs and systematic discrimination against women are legalized. Today, the Iranians are under the pressure of a religious dictatorship which deprives them of their freedoms and their basic rights. 120,000 political prisoners have been executed. During the three months of summer 66 public executions took place. I wish to make the voice of my compatriots heard, the cry for liberty of millions of Iranians that the mullahs’ repression cannot stifle.

Last month, the mullahs’ regime murdered Valiollah Feiz-Mahdavi, a member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization, in prison. He had been detained in solitary confinement for more than 500 days. Yet he was able to send a message to the outside world short before his execution, in which he stressed the necessity to resist the mullahs. He stated: “Even if you execute me, this path will continue. Yes this path will continue!”

But I would like to address European governments and ask them the following questions: Why keeping silent before the crimes of the mullahs’ regime? Why continuing with the appeasement policy and the concessions to these criminals?

The appeasement policy made the mullahs more provocative in every domain. During four years of nuclear negotiations, the regime ignored at least twelve ultimatums by the international community. But each time it would be granted more time and more concessions until it started uranium enrichment. Even when the mullahs ignored the Security Council’s resolution, this policy continued. Isn’t it true that this policy only aims at helping the mullahs’ regime to develop the atomic bomb? Today, the religious dictatorship is closer to the bomb than it was four years ago.

Although the European Union announced the failure of the talks and Mr Solana stated: “We have worked for three months in vain to convince Iran to suspend its enrichment activities,” Europe still suffers from a lack of firmness and an appropriate policy towards the mullahs’ regime. We believe that weak sanctions would lead to the continuation of the appeasement policy which failed.

Honorable Parliamentarians,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Fifteen years ago, we announced that Islamic fundamentalism was the new global threat. We reminded that terrorism was the main instrument of this dangerous phenomenon to advance its objectives. We warned that this threat would not confine itself to the region and we said that the heart of this phenomenon was beating in Tehran. Today we are delivering a warning: giving in to mullahs’ nuclear ambitions will lead to their growing meddling in Iraq and to their warmongering in the region with catastrophic consequences likely to lead to a third world war.

With its central force, the People’s Mojahedin Organization, which advocates a democratic and tolerant Islam, this resistance is the antithesis of Islamic fundamentalism. As this phenomenon spreads in the Middle East and in Iran, an opposite trend can be observed thanks to the presence of the Resistance.

In an unprecedented initiative, 5.2 million Iraqis signed a statement in June asserting that the most effective response to the meddling of the mullahs in Iraq would be ousting of this regime and its agents and support to the People’s Mojahedin as the best impediment to Islamic fundamentalism. This is why the mullahs do not hesitate to conspire against them to destroy them.

In addition to terrorist operations, they put pressure on the Iraqi government to cut off the People’s Mojahedin’s supplying of fuel, food and medicines and to expel them from Iraq. Last year, agents of the mullahs’ regime kidnapped two members of the Mojahedin. A bus carrying Iraqi workers to Ashraf City was bombed and 11 people died. Two weeks ago, an eminent Shiite Ayatollah and the chairman of the National Justice and Democratic Progress Party and 10 of his colleagues were murdered on the grounds of their opposition to mullahs’ meddling and their solidarity with the Mojahedin.

The People’s Mojahedin members have been living in Iraq for twenty years. In 2004, the coalition forces recognized their status of protected persons under the 4th Geneva Convention. Today, I call on you to defend the residents of Ashraf. I particularly call on you to demand the multinational forces and the Iraqi government to reaffirm their refugee status.

Considering this situation, one is entitled to wonder what the nature of this regime’s strategy is: the mullahs’ regime is unable to solve the economic and social problems of Iran, this is why one year ago, Khamenei installed Ahmadinejad in power. He tried to cover his weaknesses with an agressive policy. Because of these weaknesses, and in spite of numerous concessions from western countries, the mullahs’ regime cannot come to an agreement with the international community on the nuclear file and decide the end of terrorism and fundamentalism. It cannot also abandon its internal repression. Without executions and tortures, without foreign support, religious fascism cannot remain in power. Khamenei clearly stated that any retreat would lead to further retreats. The mullahs’ president also said: “a step back would mean disapperance of all our nuclear achievements”.

These remarks are clear indications of the regime’s weaknesses and lack of any prospect for its future and its need to create crisis. The appeasement policy by western countries towards the mullahs puts the world at the risk of a serious danger. This policy agrees with the regime’s demands and imposes restrictions against its democratic alternative by placing the main force of the Resistance on the terrorist list. The regime’s demands also indicate its weakness and lack of a prospect for the religious dictatorship. The negative responses by the regime to the Resistance’s appeals for free elections under the supervision of the United Nations also show the weakness and lack of prospect for the regime. The mullahs’ pressure on the Belgian government to cancel this trip and its efforts to prevent this meeting to take place displays mullahs’ fear of the Iranian Resistance and the arrogance of the mullahs who want to extend their repression to Europe. Their insistance on acquiring nuclear weapons, causing insecurity in Iraq and their warmongering in Lebanon show that the regime is struggling to maintain power.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Is there a solution? The main question is: How to prevent another war in the region? The answer is a change in Iran. This change is an aboslute necessity for peace and security in the region and in the world. But this change can only be brought about by the Iranian people and their Resistance.

I have always insisted on our opposition to any foreign military intervention. And supporting the appeasement policy towards religious fascism under the pretext of opposing the war, is hypocrisy. The appeasement policy will not prevent the war. This policy must be brought to an end. Twenty years of appeasement by western countries, and especially the terrorist label of the democratic opposition, acted as the main impediment for the Iranian people.

Last year the Belgian Senate adopted a resolution which provided the grounds for the revision of the People’s Mojahedin’s terrorist label. Moreover, the Chamber of Deputies also adopted a similar resolution later. These resolutions and the statements of the majority of British, Italian and Luxembourg Parliaments and others make the voice of the Iranian population heard which calls for an end to this injustice.

I call on you to urge your government to apply this resolution and lead the campaign to remove the People’s Mojahedin of Iran from the EU’s terrorism list.

Labelling the People’s Mojahedin a terrorist organization is unfounded. All the members of the Mojahedin in Ashraf City in Iraq signed with the MNF-I an agreement against violence and any kind of participation in or support to terrorism. In this agreement, they committed themselves to respecting Iraqi laws and UN conventions.

Let me briefly introduce the Resistance to you. Our Resistance is first of all a humanist movement which struggles to revive the human values destroyed by fundamentalism. A deep belief in liberty gives us the power to face difficulties of the fight against the religious dictatorship.

Our aim is not to seize power at all costs. Our aim is to guarantee freedom and democracy at all costs. We want a pluralist republic based on the separation of religion and state, the complete equality between women and men, respect for individual rights, political and social freedoms, respect for international conventions, particularly concerning human rights, civil liberties and women, a free market, a peaceful coexistence and relations with all country. In Iran of tomorrow we will seek the abolition of death penalty.

I call on you to ask your government to establish an official dialogue with the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the representative of the Iranian people.

To conclude, it is time for the Europe to put an end to its appeasement policy towards the mullahs. It is time for the governments in Europe and the EU to listen to the demands of the Iranin people’s respresentative and that they remove the People’s Mojahedin of Iran from the terrorism list.

It is time for the UN Security Council to impose a diplomatic, weapons, technological and oil embargo against the mullahs’ regime. It is time for Europe to side with the Iranians and their desire for change.

Thank you.