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Video: The Third Option for democratic change in Iran |
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Thursday, 16 December 2004 |
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NCRI- Maryam Rajavi tells Euro MPs there is an alternative to appeasing the mullahs in Iran or going to war with them
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was the keynote speaker at a meeting in the he European Parliament in Strasbourg to consider European policy options on Iran.
Excerpts from Mrs. Rajavi's speech:
By forming a pluralistic alternative, a widespread social network and a liberation army, the resistance has sufficient power and potential to bring about change in Iran. It has led the Iranian people's movement for democracy in the most difficult domestic and regional circumstances.
Politically speaking, such barbaric repression reflects only the mullahs' fear of being overthrown by the Iranian people and resistance. Why in all their international interactions, the mullahs demand the exertion of pressure on the resistance movement? Why during discussions on the nuclear issue and in return for binding international commitments, they set the condition that Europe blacklist the resistance? Why did they openly call for guarantees that would prevent the regime's overthrow? Are all of these not indicative of the mullahs' paranoia over the third option?
The resistance movement has deeps roots in society. As the core of this resistance, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has been fighting for freedom against the dictatorships of the Shah and Khomeini for 40 years. The PMOI's extensive network across Iran organizes and gives direction to social protests, provides the movement with financial assistance and intelligence and reveals Tehran's most clandestine nuclear, missile and terrorist projects.
With a democratic and tolerant vision of Islam, the PMOI is the antithesis to fundamentalism. It has exposed and isolated the violent and backward interpretation of Islam by the fundamentalists. The PMOI message is that Iran's mullahs do not represent Islam. They are Islam's enemy.
The PMOI is the most serious buffer against the mullahs' fundamentalism and terrorism. It is a major barrier against Tehran's strategy to devour Iraq. Recognizing this reality, half-a-million Iraqis issued a statement earlier this year, demanding the continued presence of the PMOI in Iraq. Recently, more than 200,000 Iraqi singed a declaration, condemning the EU-troika's deal with Tehran against the PMOI as countering the interests of the people of Iran and Iraq.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the resistance's parliament, is a coalition of democratic forces that seek a republic based on the separation of Church and State. Half its members are women. With the membership of religious and ethnic minorities as well as different political tendencies, the NCRI represents a majority of the Iranian nation and is the guarantee for Iran's unity after the toppling of the mullahs and the peaceful transfer of power.
We have called for free elections under the United Nations auspices repeatedly. The mullahs, however, would never accept that. For us, democracy is not merely a political program, but an ideal for which 120,000 members of the resistance, including six members of my family have sacrificed their lives. The NCRI has committed itself to organize free elections for a constituent assembly within six months of regime change and handover the affairs to the people's elected representatives so that society's deep wounds that were caused by eighty years of dictatorship are healed.
By adhering to international covenants, interest in peace and coexistence, we want a peaceful Iran, free from all weapons of mass destruction. We want to rebuild Iran, which the mullahs have ruined, through the people's participation, the return of our experts and friendship with the rest of the world.
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