OPINION:
The people of Iran, through their protests starting in November 2019, and almost every day, have demonstrated their great desire for freedom, and have put their lives on the line by demonstrating. That is a very powerful demonstration of just how strong the desire for freedom is in Iran. In the early days of those protests, over 1,500 people were killed by the murderous regime of terror. The people of Iran have made it clear to the whole world that they want a free, democratic, and peaceful Iran ruled by law, an Iran where people can practice their religion, and in which women are treated the same as men. Those are precisely the goals of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the MEK, and they are the goals enunciated by Maryam Rajavi in her very brilliant and universal 10 principles.
Two protest slogans show how the people of Iran feel. These are, “Reformists, hardliners, the game is now over,” and “Down with the dictator.”
As stated in the letter that was signed by the 31 U.S. dignitaries to set forth our belief, we say as a group there is a beacon of hope in this dark landscape. The one organization that has done more than any other, including government, to free Iranian citizens from tyranny and the world from fundamentalist-inspired terrorism, is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, NCRI. The NCRI strives relentlessly to ensure that hope for democracy and an end to injustice and tyranny remains alive in Iran.
The NCRI is under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, a woman who has the respect of all of us. She has been a hero. She is a dedicated leader with tremendous understanding of the plight of the Iranians and what’s needed to bring Iran to a democratic alternative for the regime. Can you imagine when this terrible regime falls, and it will fall, and she’s the interim leader, to have a woman as the head of state? I believe it will completely transform a great deal of the Middle East and a great deal of the world.
The NCRI, under Madame Rajavi, offers us the universal vision of freedom. The MEK is the main component of the NCRI and, with its network, is the driving force for change. That is the reason why it is singled out for murder by the regime.
There are Iranian apologists here in America and in the West, people who are paid by the Iranian regime, who say the NCRI and the MEK do not amount to much. They claim it is a cult with very few followers and no chance to replace the regime. But, listen to the words of the Ayatollah and his puppet, Rouhani, just over the last year, who said several times that the only threat to their regime, the only organization that has any chance to put together a government to replace them, is the NCRI and the MEK. It is equally amazing that the corrupt Western press suppresses that. I can only attribute that to the power of the lobbying organizations for Iran who have sold their souls to the regime of terror. They know that this organization is a total threat to them. When they see today’s gathering of people taking advantage of new modern methods of communication, and our ability to broadcast all throughout Iran, despite their best efforts to block us, they realize they have a formidable foe. They realize and can foresee how this group could easily stand up an interim government that could be a bridge to a permanent democratic, free, prosperous, and wonderful Iran, because the Iranian people deserve that.
The economy in Iran is collapsing. That is a tragedy. No one wants to see that. People are starving. Even when the regime was getting a flow of money like the $1.7 billion in cash that was delivered to Iran as the price of the ill-fated nuclear agreement, people in Iran were starving. Now, with the much more effective sanctions that have been in effect since the new administration came into power in Washington, the sanctions have been crushing.
The regime is on the brink, particularly with its handling of coronavirus, in which they allowed 70,000 or more of their people to die, without any help. Everybody in Iran knows that the reason that the people of Iran are suffering is not only the sanctions, it’s not only coronavirus, it’s the fact that they still allocate tremendous sums of money to terrorist groups all over the world. They would rather send people to bomb us in Paris or to kill some of you in America than to feed their people.
They would rather allocate money to renegade criminal groups that want to wreak havoc in Europe or in the United States than feed their people. That is why they are not only religious maniacs, they are just plain, common criminals, crooks, thieves. To me, the mullahs are like the people who ran the mafia, the people I prosecuted who ran the mafia and extorted their people, extorted the Italian-American people, and subjugated them, except this is on a much bigger scale. The Ayatollah is like the head of the mafia. No man can be a man of God who is a mass murderer.
Experience has shown that dictatorship does not change on its own. The old saying, a leopard does not change its spots, is quite true - particularly a dictator. Despite all the concessions provided under the JCPOA, the Iranian regime didn’t change one bit. In fact, it got worse. It continued its oppression of the Iranian people. It continued its march to becoming a nuclear power. It continued to be the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Regime change in Iran is within reach. Do not listen to the pessimists and to the Iranian apologists who are paid to say that.
The goal of the NCRI and of Maryam Rajavi is very simple: a free Iran that will be a contributing nation to peace in the world, to a better world. This is the heritage of the Iranian people. This is one of the great civilizations that goes back to time, immemorial. The goal of Maryam Rajavi and all of us here is not to impose anyone on the Iranian people. The goal is to see regime change.
There is a shadow government to handle the interim so we don’t have the situation that we had in Iraq several years ago, so the government can continue, and the people can start to prosper immediately. The goal is to have free and fair elections, to establish a rule of law from day one, to make sure that women participate in the government and society to the same extent as men, to practice your religion as you see fit or not practice religion, to immediately end the nuclear program, and to make clear that Iran is to rejoin the community of civilized nations. Then the Iranian people will decide who do they want, what kind of constitution they want. That is the goal of this organization and the millions of people that support it, and the people that are watching today.
The regime is teetering right now. When it falls, you are going to have your name etched in that great book of liberators. The one whose name will be in the largest, boldest print will be Maryam Rajavi. Stand with Maryam Rajavi.
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