‘Your 10-point plan is the future’

We are all overwhelmed by what you have built here in Ashraf 3; what a tremendous achievement. Congratulations.

Madame Rajavi, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, friends, I’m delighted to be back with you, the National Council of Resistance, at Free Iran 2019. And I am delighted to be here because there are few causes in this world today more important at this moment than what you are pursuing: the right of the people of Iran to change their government.

In the years since we last gathered, the Ayatollah’s regime has openly increased its enrichment of uranium. It has stepped up its support for its terrorist allies and proxies in the Middle East and around the world. And it has taken the suppression of human rights to new levels. So, the need for change in Iran is greater than ever before, and the need for the work of this organization on behalf of the Iranian people is greater than ever before.

How should we respond to that threat? There is only one way: to respond with firmness. Sadly and dangerously, some in the world claim to want to reach out to the regime’s moderates. Anyone senior in a regime like this, senior in a regime of extremism and of brutality and of hatred could ever possibly be a moderate? It is ridiculous. The right policy, the only realistic policy is firmness and strength. Impose sanctions, boycott its oil, designate it and its institutions as terrorist organizations, and do what my government did in Canada — close down the regime’s embassies around the world.

What really is the argument against responding with firmness and strength? It is because the world, they say, has a stark choice, appeasement or war. That is a false choice. Surrender to the regime’s religious [extremists] is an acceptance of the war that the theocracy is already pursuing through its proxies and allies against its neighbors in the region. Weakness and appeasement will invite the regime to pursue even more aggressive confrontation in the future. The right response is not to surrender to the regime, it is to stand with the Iranian people and stand against this regime.

Those are the people we must stand with. And that means standing behind the 10-point plan that Madame Rajavi and the National Council of Resistance of Iran have committed to. Democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, justice, human rights, peaceful coexistence, gender equality, private property and a market economy, the separation of religion and state, and a non-nuclear Iran. Your 10-point plan is the future. It is the future the world wants. It is the future that Iranians need. And it is the future you have long fought for.

That new Iran is coming. And it will be an Iran that stands freely and proudly among the nations of the world. It will be an Iran that your efforts have inspired. So, keep up the fight. Hazer, hazer, hazer (We are ready).