“The most important respect to the Iranian people is for their courage, persistence, and for their unbreakable will to achieve liberation. This is going to be key for the liberation of Iran, for a better world, for a better region, and for all of us,” said former Member of the European Parliament Paulo Casaca at a rally on March 20 in Brussels, held in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and their organized Resistance. The rally was attended by renowned lawmakers from both sides of the Atlantic and thousands of freedom-loving Iranians. The rally and its attendees urged the European Union to blacklist the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and support the Iranian people’s demand for a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic of Iran.
Below is the full text of Mr. Casaca’s speech, revised and edited for clarity:
Happy New Year. Let’s make this new year the year of the liberation of the Iranian people from the dictatorship. This will be the best gift we could give to the Iranian people. Let me first make a moment to remember those who fell the over 750 victims of the present uprising and so many others that have been cruelly murdered by this regime. And as a mention was being made of Iraq, let me also say that we should also think about our Iraqi sisters and brothers that were murdered by the Iranian regime and its agents in Iraq.
A special mention here to the member of the Iraqi parliament, Mohammed Alaqwazi, whom I’ve been with both in Geneva and here in Brussels, and who was murdered within the Iraqi parliament by the regime in connection with Al Qaeda in Iraq, working together. This was perhaps the most symbolic of all of the crimes of this regime. And let me tell you that the godfather of all vices is cowardice. This is for cowardice that we have been seeing these people and these countries that are stepping back, that are making deals for hostages or for asking Iran not to continue to aggress them.
.@paulocasaca1: The mullahs do not respect anything but force and strength. And those who insist on these shameful deals are bound to pay dearly for them.#BlacklistIRGC #IranRevoIution https://t.co/1WwUEVHuxq
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 20, 2023
And over 40 years, they should have known this does not work. The mullahs do not respect anything but force and strength. And those who insist on these shameful deals are bound to pay dearly for them. And this applies to everyone, starting here in Belgium, where the authorities make the most shameful deal for liberating the diplomat terrorist, Assadi. A deal that we would like very much to know the whole of it. What did they trade? What did they promise to the Iranian regime? What are they doing on behalf of this deal?
This is something that we shall keep asking them because they are betraying the Belgian people. They are betraying Europe. Assadi is someone that is on the terrorist list. How come they are negotiating for his liberation? They are acting on his behalf of him. How can they betray all the rules of our democratic society like that? It’s absolutely shameful. But, my dear friends, if cowardice is the godfather of all vices, the courage of the Iranian people, the courage of the girls and women of Iran, this is the mother of all happiness. In the future, we all have the most important respect for the Iranian people, for their courage, to their persistence, and unbreakable will achieve liberation.
This is going to be the key to the liberation of Iran, and it’s going to be the key to a better world, for a better region for all of us. And this is why we have to say keep the Islamic Revolutionary Guards on the terrorist list. Do as the European Parliament called to do. This is why we have to stick with the ten-point peace plan of Maryam Rajavi. This is why we shall continue. We shall support the Iranian people till the end of their struggle for freedom for a democratic republic regime in Iran. Happy new year. And we shall overcome. We shall have a victory in Iran, and freedom will prevail. Thank you very much.