SPEECH TO NCRI/MEK RALLY 7 MARCH IN LONDON 29-07-19
This is the sixth international rally organized by the Iranian resistance calling for regime change in Iran. In the past few weeks, tens of thousands of supporters of the NCRI/PMOI/MEK have gathered in great rallies in Brussels, Washington, Berlin, Stockholm, Tirana and now London. We are also commemorating today the tenth anniversary of the July 2019 massacre in Camp Ashraf, when over 1000 heavily armed Iraqi troops, acting on direct instructions from Tehran, attacked the unarmed refugees, murdering men and women and injuring over 400.
Ten years later, after suffering many attacks and massacres in Ashraf and Liberty, we have seen Ashraf III miraculously rise from the ashes in Albania, where our courageous frontline brothers and sisters now live. We have shown the world the strength of our movement and the strength of our global support. I hope there is someone from the Guardian newspaper here today. As the mouthpiece for the mullahs I hope they are ashamed of the rubbish they print.
It is a disgrace that leftist newspapers like the Guardian still pursue the failed policy of appeasement with the theocratic, fascist regime in Iran. Why don’t they support the Iranian citizens who are demanding regime change and a return to peace, democracy, justice, human rights and women’s rights? These newspapers claim that the West is faced only with the choice between war and appeasement. That is a false dichotomy.
Making concessions to this regime simply emboldens them and confirms their view that the West is weak. We do not seek war, but we seek courage; we seek resilience, not weakness. We must show our support for the Iranian people and their resistance. The new Prime Minister and the new British government must recognize the PMOI and its charismatic leader Maryam Rajavi and their right to demand regime change. No-one is asking any other country to intervene in Iran. Simply we need to demonstrate our support for the resistance and for the Iranian people.
Prior to last weekend’s seizure of the Stena Impero, the mullahs had sabotaged 6 oil tankers in the Gulf, shot down an American drone and supplied missiles for their Houthi rebel proxies in Yemen to fire into Saudi Arabia. They supply weapons and personnel to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s bloody civil war in Syria, the terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon, the brutal Shi’ia militias in Iraq and Hamas in Palestine. Now this criminal regime has added international piracy to its long list of transgressions.
Iran, despite its rich, civilised and open culture, has become a universal pariah, its clerical fascist regime condemned for human rights abuse and the export of terror, while its 80 million citizens struggle to feed their families. This is a regime that has executed tens of thousands of political prisoners. A regime that flogs, immolates, amputates limbs, gouges out eyes and hangs people in public. A regime that has executed more than 3,500 people, including women and children, since the so-called ‘moderate’ Hassan Rouhani became president. Inside Iran, the torturers and executioners are busier than ever, determined to crush all opposition under a tidal wave of fear and oppression.
This is a dictatorship that governs through corruption, bribery, blackmail, extortion and fear, that has arrested and imprisoned over ten thousand peaceful protesters during the on-going uprising that has raged across Iran for the past 18 months, where many of those arrested have been tortured to death or have simply ‘disappeared’.
This is a regime that has mobilized its Ministry of Intelligence & Security (MOIS) agents to track down and eliminate political opponents in Europe and right around the world.It uses its embassies as bomb factories and terror cells, plotting atrocities. We should close every Iranian embassy and expel their diplomats. Britain needs to follow the example of the United States by blacklisting the IRGC and the MOIS.
This is not a regime that should be appeased or mollified, it is an evil regime that should be toppled. And the Iranian people have lost their fear. Revolution is in the air, aided and abetted by brave members of the MEK, especially in the resistance units in almost every town and city inside the country, who risk their lives daily to bring an end to this evil tyranny.We applaud the courage of the Iranian people who have risen up against this terrorist regime. We want them to know that they have our support and that we in Europe stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their struggle to overthrow the tyrants.
