Speaking at the second day of the Free Iran 2026 World Summit, Bob Blackman, Chairman of the British Committee for Iran Freedom, declared absolute solidarity with the Iranian people’s struggle against the ruling clerical dictatorship. Addressing international delegates, Blackman emphasized that despite the regime’s brutal repression of nationwide uprisings spanning 2025 into 2026, the current theocracy has reached a historic dead end.
Blackman firmly rejected a return to monarchy, criticizing Reza Pahlavi for failing to condemn the previous Shah’s dictatorship and for claiming support from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). True democratic change, Blackman argued, cannot be delivered by family entitlement but requires organized, popular resistance willing to sacrifice for a secular and democratic republic.
Highlighting a viable path forward, Blackman endorsed the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) provisional government and Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan to transfer sovereignty to the Iranian people through free elections. He announced that more than 3,000 parliamentarians and former heads of state across 55 countries have officially endorsed this democratic vision.
Significantly, Blackman revealed that the UK government passed legislation enabling the official designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization and the freezing of its assets. He concluded that this decisive British legislative step would accelerate an orderly transition toward freedom, urging the international community to back the NCRI to guarantee lasting peace and stability.
The full text of Bob Blackman‘s speech follow:
.@BobBlackman: Genuine democratic change can only come through an organized resistance with popular support and a willingness to make sacrifices. For more than four decades, the MEK and #MEKResistanceUnits have demonstrated precisely such commitment under the harshest repression.…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 21, 2026
Madam Rajavi, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, friends.
It is a great honor for all of us to be with you today and address this year’s Free Iran rally. We are here on behalf of the British delegation.
As we gather in the home of the Iranian Resistance, the British delegation sends our deepest regards and stands in solidarity with the people of Iran.
The courageous Resistance Units, political prisoners, detained protesters, and the heroes and heroines of Ashraf 3 deserve our admiration.
For decades, your determination and sacrifice have kept alive the hope of a free, secular, democratic, and non-nuclear Iran. Today, the hope is that [this] is becoming nearer and nearer [to] the end goal.
We’ve seen once again the determination of the Iranian people to overthrow the clerical dictatorship, which has responded since the nationwide uprising of [2025] to [’26] with brutal repression, shutting down the internet, deploying the Revolutionary Guards on the streets with heavy weapons, killing thousands of protesters, arresting tens of thousands, and subjecting so many to torture and abuse.
Yet the regime has failed, and will continue to fail, to stop the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom.
The ruling religious dictatorship has reached a historic dead end. Unable to resolve Iran’s deep political, economic, and social crises, it relies on executions, repression, terrorism, regional warmongering, hostage-taking, threats to international shipping, and the pursuit of nuclear weapons in a desperate attempt to prevent the next uprising and to force the world into continued appeasement.
Following the 2022 uprising, a major propaganda campaign sought to promote the return of the Shah’s dictatorship through his son, Reza Pahlavi.
Democracy in Iran will not be delivered by those who seek to inherit power as a family entitlement or depend on foreign powers to restore yet another dictatorship.
Reza Pahlavi has never condemned his father’s dictatorship. Instead, he has repeatedly praised the Shah’s era with his notorious SAVAK agents.
He also publicly claimed support from more than 50,000 members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps—the IRGC, the very institution that is responsible for suppressing protesters and killing dissidents.
History teaches us that genuine democratic change can only come through an organized resistance with popular support, a democratic vision, and a willingness to make sacrifices for freedom.
For more than four decades, the PMOI, MEK, and its Resistance Units have demonstrated precisely such commitment under the harshest repression and with absolute, brilliant bravery.
Faced with this reality, the regime and its lobbyists continue to claim that no other organized democratic alternative exists, and that regime change would lead to chaos, civil war, or even the breakup of Iran. Their objective is to discourage the Iranian people and to justify continued appeasement.
But the facts prove otherwise. In February ’23, the NCRI, a democratic coalition with a 40-year history, announced the establishment of a provisional government under Madam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, and indeed, their mission to transfer sovereignty to the Iranian people through free elections and establish a democratic republic.
As chairman of the British Committee for Iran Freedom, my cross-party colleagues and I from both Houses of Parliament are proud to support this provisional government and the Iranian people’s right to determine their own future.
I would like to announce [that], so far, more than 3,000 parliamentarians across the world, former heads of state, and distinguished personalities from no less than 55 countries across five continents have endorsed a joint declaration supporting the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and [welcoming] the NCRI’s provisional government.
Leaders of the world community must support President-elect Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan and the NCRI’s provisional government to end the Iranian people’s suffering and [guarantee] a lasting peace, stability, and security.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has long been the goal of the UK—both in our cross-party [efforts]—that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps should be classified as a terrorist entity and their assets sequestrated.
I’m pleased to say that this week, finally, the UK government put through legislation which allows us now to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
This brings forward the day when there will be an orderly transition from the theocratic regime that exists in Tehran to the democratic [republic] led by Madam Rajavi.
The Iranian people’s resistance and their struggle for a democratic republic will prevail, sooner rather than later.
Let us all resolve that next year when we meet, it will be in a free and democratic Tehran with a government led by Madam Rajavi.