In a powerful address to an online conference held by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on March 5, 2026, former United States Senator Robert Torricelli emphasized that Iran has reached a unique historical crossroads. He asserted that after decades of struggle, the Iranian people are being afforded a “second chance” to reclaim the revolution that was stolen by the clergy in 1979.
Senator Torricelli highlighted that while international support can facilitate the right conditions, the responsibility for reclaiming the nation now rests with the Iranian people, their local businesses, and the dedicated Resistance Units of the MEK.
Senator Torricelli championed Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan as the essential framework for a future democratic republic—one that is secular, non-nuclear, and at peace with the world. He issued a direct call to action for Iranian soldiers and citizens to choose their loyalty: either to the failing clerical regime or to the future of a free Iran.
Crucially, he argued that the NCRI’s provisional government is the only entity with the professional resources and international credibility to fill the looming power vacuum. He explicitly stated that this new democratic government must exclude both the current theocracy and the previous monarchy, emphasizing a future with “no kings and no clerics.” He concluded with the firm conviction that the next gathering of this global coalition will take place in a liberated Tehran.
The full text of Senator Torricelli’s speech follows:
Former US senator @bobtorricelli: This is a unique moment; the Iranian people are being given a second chance. The 1979 revolution was stolen by clerics, but now there is a chance to create a democratic republic based on the Ten-Point Plan, founded on freedom and secular…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 5, 2026
Thank you so much.
I’m honored to be with you and Mrs. Rajavi, it’s a pleasure to see you and to hear your remarks. It is an extraordinary moment for all of us who have spent so many years, even decades, waiting for this moment. And I don’t want to go further without first paying my respects, my honor to the brave servicemen of the United States Air Force, Navy, the United States Army who are today putting their lives on the line for no cause but freedom and security. There is no advantage to the United States for the sacrifices we’re making. There is no territory, there is no wealth, there is no conquest. There is only the cause of freedom. And for that, every American serviceman has my complete admiration.
This is obviously a unique moment in history. The Iranian people are being given something that history rarely affords: a second chance. The revolution of 1979 was stolen from them by the clerics. Now, there’s a chance again. As Mrs. Rajavi has outlined in her Ten-Point Plan, there’s a chance here to create what the Iranian people have wanted all these years, what they fought for 47 years ago: a democratic republic founded on these ten principles—a secular government at peace with its neighbors, respecting gender and freedom of religion and speech, a non-nuclear Iran that can reconcile with the world and rejoins the family of nations, a nation that stops stealing both the freedom and the prosperity of its young.
We have that chance again. This moment now, the burden will soon shift. It will no longer be on the backs of foreign soldiers, sailors, and airmen, but the Iranian people themselves. As President Trump has outlined, we can help create the moment, we can’t seize the moment. The revolutionary guard’s barracks and training facilities are being hit mercilessly. Those who abuse the Iranian people are now being asked to pay an enormous price in the loss of their power and their lives.
Senator @bobtorricelli: "This is an unwritten story in #American politics, a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, liberals, and conservatives that have come together in these years to support @Maryam_Rajavi and the NCRI is unlike anything I have ever seen in American politics. pic.twitter.com/cMAztei05M
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 11, 2025
But that guarantees nothing. It’s now up to the Iranian people on the streets, in their businesses, wherever they serve. If you’re an Iranian soldier today in the military, you need to decide whether you serve Iran and its people or the clerics. If you’re a businessman or running a small shop, you need to decide whether you’re paying taxes to help the mullahs or you’re running a business to help yourself and your family. Everyone needs to take a stand. Your children and their children are going to ask, where were you in this moment?
The critical decisions to come are going to be that when the clerics fall, as inevitably they will fall, and the people on the streets, led by resistance, proud, brave Resistance Units of the MEK, seize power, who will be at the table? Who will be there to form a new government? The provisional government established by the NCRI and Mrs. Rajavi is the framework. It is all-inclusive. Any Iranian who wants a free and democratic Iran should be free to participate. The only rules are: no clerics from this regime and no dictators from the previous regime. No kings, no clerics. A democratic government has to start with democratic people.
And this, my friends, is where the burden is going to fall upon friends of the Iranian people around the world who will have a voice in who sits at that table. General Jones, I think of you. Speaker Bercow, I think of you. And similar friends in France and Germany around the world who will speak to assuring that the people who fought on the streets are represented in the new government. Assuring that those who fought for freedom won’t have it stolen again. And so, as the burden shifts from American airmen and seamen and soldiers to the people of Iran, it will come back to diplomats around the world, allies of freedom who are going to need to be heard about the composition of that negotiating table that forms a new and permanent Iranian government that awaits elections.
Former US Senator @bobtorricelli: Iranian People Themselves Are the Alternative#FreeIran2024 https://t.co/cHvVZoXlrd
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 2, 2024
Obviously, all of us who have stood with the NCRI all these years have a particular interest in the representation of the NCRI. But it isn’t just loyalty or the commitment because of all these years. This new government can’t fail. It must fill the vacuum to avoid further suffering by the Iranian people. So why the NCRI? It has professionals that can help put together a provisional government fast. It has resources. It has international credibility. It has credibility on the streets because it paid the price in lives all these very many years. It has the international relationships.
And so, this timely conference is that we all be ready for that moment. It’s coming soon, and I trust we can all be asked and counted on to be heard in the days that are coming. Mrs. Rajavi, your persistence, your devotion is without peer. How you and your family withstood all these years, all the sacrifices, it is a thing of history, and it has been my honor all these years to stand with you. And though we’ve said it many times, I now say it with a new confidence: next year we’ll be having this conversation in Tehran.
Thank you.