‘A freer Iran is on the horizon’

I am so overjoyed by the focus of this conference, the theme of this conference, the hashtag of this conference. #Free Iran.

It’s been a long road, and there is still a few more miles to travel. And the road has been littered by the blood of your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, relatives and friends. That book contains 20,000. There have been over 120,000 that have been martyred. … So let’s just take a moment to think about them because we wouldn’t be here today without them. We also wouldn’t be here today without the leadership of Madame Rajavi through the difficult times and the good times and the horrible times. She has always remained hopeful that we could stand up and say free Iran.

Under President Trump’s leadership, I believe he can help us rid the Iranian people of the oppression that has subjected them for so long. You only need to read his speech in Saudi Arabia to see that he is laser-focused on the danger of Iran, not just to the freedom of the region, but the freedom of the world. He understands how it would be extraordinarily dangerous for the world to have a nuclear Iran. He realizes how dangerous for the world it is to have an Ayatollah who is a theocratic dictator and a madman. And he also realizes, as we do, that the only way we’re going to have stability in the Middle East and stability in the world is exactly the theme of your conference: a free Iran, built on the principles that we all share. You stand for freedom of religion, you stand for freedom for women, you stand for free elections, you stand for the rule of law, you stand for respecting human dignity and human rights. That’s what we need in Iran, and that’s why you’re the hope of Iran….

Without Madame Rajavi, people sitting there, all of you, we wouldn’t be where we are. We can see being able to convince the world that there are no moderate members of the present Iranian regime. When I hear the word moderate and I hear the name Rouhani, I think of the fact that he has actually killed more people in Iran than Ahmadinejad. He is a complete phony. He presents a moderate image to the world and to the Iranian people he is a violent, vicious murderer, so they’re afraid of him.

As Madame Rajavi said, it is long past time to declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. They have on their hands the blood of so many of your people and they have on their hands the blood of my people too, whom they helped to kill in Iraq. We should declare them a terrorist organization so we can cut them off of support around the world. And time has come for regime change in Iran.

Not only do we have regime change, but we have an alternative, and that alternative is you. It’s a democratic alternative. It’s a force for change. It’s well organized. It has popular support. And it has a vast network of supporters. And whoever doesn’t believe that, I ask them to do two things: Take a look at how many of your fellow compatriots are murdered by the regime. Think of how frightened the regime in Iran is of the MEK. That will tell you how strong you are…. And second, supporting the MEK is one of the reasons and one of the ways to break that loose under the leadership of a great hero, Madame Rajavi.

I truly believe … that a freer Iran is on the horizon. But I’m happiest to be here because finally I can say, and I can probably say this with a good deal of authority, that the government of the United States supports you, we’re behind you, we agree with your values. And finally, I can stand here and say to you, I, my government and your leadership, we see Iran in exactly the same way. The regime is evil and it must go. Free Iran.

• Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. “Rudy” Giuliani is a cybersecurity expert and an informal adviser to the Trump administration. This is an excerpt from remarks he gave at the July 1 rally in Paris.