NCRI FORMER WORLD-LEADERS’ CONFERENCE 

Paris – Thursday 22 June 2023

SUPPORTING THE IRANIAN PEOPLE & MRS RAJAVI’S 

TEN-POINT PLAN

Could I thank all of you most sincerely for joining us here today and for signing the letter addressed to Joe Biden, Charles Michel, Rishi Sunak and Justin Trudeau. A copy of your letter was also sent to the leaders of all 27 EU Member States. The importance of your letter is significant, as you have broken the wall of silence from the international community that for decades has provided the tyrannical Iranian regime with a sense of impunity. Indeed you have so enraged the mullahs that they have put enormous pressure on the west’s main appeasers, Macron & Biden, who are foolishly conspiring to resurrect the zombie nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Iran. Macron was behind the move to ban the proposed NCRI Rally next weekend in Paris – a ban that we are challenging in the French courts, and Biden, who has undie influence through SPAK in Albania, was behind the outrageous attack by more than 1,000 police on Ashraf 3, using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber batons. One of the Ashrafi refugees was killed and many more have been hospitalized. This was a disgraceful breach of international law and justice and was the manifestation of fawning appeasement by the American and French presidents – appeasement that they have done in the face of the massive international support that has been achieved for the NCRI and MEK.

On Wednesday, 7 June, I chaired a meeting in the House of Commons where I was proud to announce that 82 out of 129 members of the Scottish Parliament, had signed a similar statement supporting the Iranian uprising, recognizing the protesters’ legitimate demand for regime change, and supporting the main democratic opposition movement the NCRI/MEK. The statement has now been signed by a majority of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Senedd – the devolved parliament of Wales and, of course, by 525 Members of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Worldwide, the statement has gained significant support by 3,500 MPs, and senators, including a majority in the US Congress, Italy, the Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, France, Slovenia, and more. 

Your letter, which was signed by 117 former world leaders, has rocked the tyrannical Iranian regime and sent shockwaves across the bows of Western appeasers. Signatories include 52 former Presidents, 54 former Prime Ministers, one former Chancellor, and nine other former Heads of State from across the world. Two former Presidents of the European Commission and three Nobel Peace Prize laureates are also among those who signed. Mike Pence, former US Vice President has recently added his signature.

Those who signed the statements have shown their outright support for Mrs Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point plan as a blueprint for Iran’s future, built upon the pillars of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law, within a secular and democratic republic. It is a platform on which I would be proud to stand as a parliamentary candidate. To counter this groundswell of international support, the mullahs’ regime has, of course, gone into overdrive to spread abusive and offensive propaganda about this initiative and about the NCRI and MEK, labelling them as extremist organizations. Having championed the NCRI and MEK for more than 20 years, I am very familiar with the regime’s demonization tactics and the way they spread defamations and deceptions. But such entreaties are absurd and worthless. 

Since the most recent nationwide uprising in Iran began in September last year, the clerical regime has struggled to restore order, facing the dawning realization that it may never succeed in doing so. Women, who have been at the forefront of the protests, continue to resist despite the repression and threats of increasingly draconian punishments. Meanwhile, videos continue to reach social media from cities and towns across the country, showing that young women and men are still chanting provocative, slogans such as “Down with the dictator , be it the  Shah or the Ayatollah” and “No to the Crown or the Turban”, in an indication of their outright opposition to the restoration of the despised monarchy by Reza Pahlavi, son of the Shah, who has mysteriously re-appeared on the scene after 44 years of almost total invisibility.

The protests continue in open defiance of the brutal crackdown, which has left more than 750 people dead, 30,000 arrested and precipitated a huge surge of executions by the regime, designed to terrorize the dissenters.  200 people, including several women, were executed last month alone. Three weeks ago, the regime executed 3 young men arrested during the protests after torturing them into making false confessions. Dozens of prisoners on death row are currently being transferred to solitary cells to await execution. 

As it seems that nothing Western nations have done in the past has altered the egregious behavior of the theocratic regime, we are certain that the best way to indicate support for the people of Iran will be to blacklist the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).  Sanctions are clearly not enough. It is time to show strength. It’s particularly important at this time when the appeasers have surpassed their usual policy of fawning supplication.

Last month, in a scandalous prisoner swap that drove a cart and horses through the European justice system, the Belgian government freed the Iranian diplomat terrorist Assadollah Assadi, who had been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for arranging a lethal bomb attack on a major NCRI rally in 2018. He was sent home to a hero’s welcome in exchange for a Belgian who had been taken hostage by the mullahs and sentenced to 40 years jail, $1 million fine and 74 lashes on trumped up charges. By succumbing to the Iranian regime’s outrageous hostage diplomacy, we have simply emboldened the mullahs to perpetrate further acts of terror in the EU in the knowledge that they can ensure the release of their terrorists by taking hostages and committing criminal blackmail.

Indeed, the truth of this prediction did not take long to manifest itself. On 11th June, the offices in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, north of Paris, were firebombed by two terrorists who hurled incendiary bombs at the main entrance. When they were pursued by some of the residents, they could be heard shouting in Farsi. They escaped in a getaway car. This followed a similar incident which occurred at the same location on May 31, at 6 am, when six gunshots were fired from the street.

The appalling act of appeasement involving the release of Assadi, was compounded by the news that the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum in Geneva, intends to appoint an ambassador from Iran’s theocratic fascist regime as their chair in November? To make matters worse, the Islamic Republic of Iran has now been elected as one of the five vice-presidents of the United Nations General Assembly. This really is farcical and undermines the credibility of the whole organization.

As the clerical regime enters its terminal phase, it is high time for the world to take concrete measures to hold the mullahs accountable for their appalling human rights violations. Iranians must be allowed to exercise their fundamental human rights without fear of reprisal. Justice and freedom are contagious, and the world must support the Iranian people in taking down their tyrants.