HomeIran News NowIran Opposition & ResistanceMayor Giuliani Urges Support for Democratic Change in Iran at Rally Outside...
Iran Opposition & Resistance

Mayor Giuliani Urges Support for Democratic Change in Iran at Rally Outside UN

Written by Shamsi Saadati
Mayor Rudy Giuliani addresses a rally in New York on September 23, 2026, to protest the presence of the Iranian regime’s delegation at the UN General Assembly
Mayor Rudy Giuliani addresses a rally in New York on September 23, 2026, to protest the presence of the Iranian regime’s delegation at the UN General Assembly

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani addressed a rally of Iranian Americans and supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran outside United Nations headquarters in New York on September 23, 2026, as the Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian spoke at the UN General Assembly. Mayor Giuliani urged the international community to reject further accommodation with Tehran and voiced support for political change led by Iranians. He praised the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the NCRI, presenting them as an organized alternative to the ruling system and highlighting Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, including free elections, gender equality, an independent judiciary, minority rights and a non-nuclear Iran.

Mayor Giuliani also criticized both Iran’s clerical leadership and restoration of the monarchy, arguing instead for a representative democratic republic. He reiterated his solidarity with the Iranian Resistance movement, and expressed hope that supporters would one day gather together in a free Tehran under a future freely elected government.

Excerpts of Mayor Giuliani’s speech follow. This transcript has been edited for publication and clarity. 

 

Thank you very much for being here for this important demonstration of how much you all love freedom, how important it is for people to have freedom, and also for the nation of Iran, which for over 100 years has been subjected to dictatorship, persecution, and some of the worst forms of terrorism imaginable.

First by the Pahlavis — by the Shah and his family for two different reigns — and then overthrowing them and thinking that you would have a democracy, and instead getting a reign of terror. That is how I describe the Islamic state.

The fact that they just had Pezeshkian, the president of Iran, speak and lie over and over again. He is a murderer. He is a terrorist. He has blood all over his hands.

He is standing in front of a group of people while probably right now they are executing in Iran, in Isfahan, two young women, 19 years old, for nothing other than opposing the regime. Probably this is the 40,000th such murder this year.

How is it possible for the leader of a country that has slaughtered 40,000 people to speak at the United Nations? What does it say of the United Nations? That it is seeking peace, or it is supporting murderers?

So, that is one reason we are here, as we have been since 1981. We are here to say the regime of terror has to end. There must be regime change!

For 46 years, we have been here as the MEK, as part of the NCRI. We have been here protesting one murderer after another.

This organization, the MEK, has persisted despite massive persecution by the regime of terror. In one year, the regime killed over 30,000 members of the MEK. Well, they did not stop the MEK. It got stronger.

Over the years, the regime has killed over 100,000 members of the MEK, yet the MEK is the most powerful organization in Iran to bring about a non-nuclear, democratic, elected government with freedom of religion and, oh my goodness, freedom for women.

The condition in Iran is almost impossible to describe. The country is beyond bankrupt. Its ability to do anything but be disruptive is gone. It cannot defend itself. It is ready to fall.

But we cannot once again enter an agreement with them.

What is it worth entering an agreement with liars? How many times does someone have to lie to you before you do not let them do it again?

They have been lying since 1979. They have promised peace five times in the last year. They promised us there would be a ceasefire, and within 24 hours they were killing people.

So, if we signed an agreement, it would not be worth the paper it was written on. But worse than that, it would kill people.

It is useless to negotiate with them because they are terrorists, murderers, possibly in some ways insane — religious maniacs.

This would be like trying to reach an agreement with Hitler. Well, we did, and we lost millions of lives because we reached an agreement with Hitler.

Just think of how many lives we would have saved if, at the very beginning, we did not negotiate with these terrorists, but we got rid of them.

I do not doubt that people realize that Iran is in terrible trouble. But they say: What can replace the regime in Iran?

Very often, when you replace a murdering dictator or king or whatever, they say you are going to go from bad to worse. Well, sometimes that happens.

But here, for 40 years, the MEK — all of us — have been working on an alternative, a very, very careful and very well-worked-out alternative.

Under the leadership of Maryam Rajavi, the MEK and the NCRI have a provisional interim government in place. It has been there for 28 years. It keeps improving.

It has the support of a very strong number of American congressmen, Republican and Democrat. There is nothing they agree on but that. It has the support of a large majority of European parliamentarians.

This is an extraordinarily responsible group of people. If the regime were to be overthrown tomorrow, the next day the schools will be open, the buses will run, the trains will run. Within a week, it will be back to normal. And within six months, you will have elections.

This is what you were denied by the UK at the beginning of the 20th century. This is what the CIA robbed you of when they put the Shah, who was a murdering, thieving dictator, in charge and killed so many of you.

And the horror of horrors: his ne’er-do-well son, who has never had a job.

I have been to 100 of these protests, two of them in which they were planning to kill me and Madame Rajavi. I have never seen that guy at any protest.

I do not know what he does for a living, except he lives off the money stolen from your people.

And his presence here is interfering with our being able to do away with the reign of terror, which tells me: Do not discount the possibility that he is working with them.

He brags about talking to 50,000 IRGC members. Now he said 100,000.

Do you know it is a crime to talk to them? They are a terrorist organization. What the hell is he doing talking to them for?

Well, he probably feels comfortable because he still has the SAVAK around.

The SAVAK were the secret police that killed maybe your fathers or your mothers, your grandfathers, your nieces, your nephews. The Shah set up the SAVAK because he did not want to have any other political parties, just him, and he killed anybody else in a political party.

And then he stole billions from the Iranian people. And the son of the Shah has never worked, and he has lived off that blood money.

So, we are going to go from a theocracy to a crooked monarchy? No. No.

If we are going to go through all this, we are going to go through it so that we have a representative democracy.

We have offered peace to the regime of terror. President Trump has offered peace to the regime of terror over and over and over again, only to be met with murderous action in response.

They agree on peace, they get on an airplane, and before they even arrive back in Iran, they are bombing ships in the Red Sea or in the Strait of Hormuz, or they are attacking Arab countries.

They should not be in the same room with decent people because they have killed so many decent people.

The MEK is the only force that can stand up to them. It is the only force with the capability, the intent, and the history to fight this.

You cannot collaborate with the IRGC. You cannot collaborate with the Nazis.

You have to fight them and defeat them.

And do not think the MEK is without resources, even though they have lost 100,000 people. And who knows how many of the 40,000 killed this year are MEK.

I believe two have been killed today. When it is over, I am going to go across to that church over there. I am going to say a prayer for them.

I have been doing that, when I finish here, for 18 years.

The MEK strategy is winning.

The MEK, going back to 2014, then again in 2018, organized protests all over Iran, 31 provinces. We are represented in all 31 provinces.

In 2018, we were very close to taking them down. And now, just a year or two ago, we were so close to taking them down that they had to kill 30,000 people in the streets to stop it.

Iran has infiltrated some of our businesses. Iran has infiltrated the UN. Iran has infiltrated some of the United States government, particularly under President Biden.

How do you explain that Barack Obama gave them billions of dollars in cash?

They are the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world. What do sponsors of terrorism do with cash? They give it to terrorists to kill people.

Who were the people the terrorists were killing? Americans.

And who was giving them the money? An American president.

And he gets away with it.

And then Biden came in. He took them from $10 billion to $100 billion in two weeks.

Not President Trump. President Trump put an end to that on day one.

And from that point on, they have been declining, declining, declining, declining — and the MEK has been getting stronger and stronger.

It was formed way back in 1965 to help deliver the Iranian people from the terrorism, the horror, and the thieving of the Shah.

It then stood up to the Ayatollah. It was invited to join the government numerous times. It told the Ayatollah, “No. We want a representative democracy. We do not want a dictatorship.”

For that, they have been persecuted, murdered, and chased for 47 years.

In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime, by a fatwa from Khomeini, massacred 30,000 of the MEK members in several days.

Over 100,000 have been murdered that we can count. It is way more than that.

When Pezeshkian speaks at the UN today, he says they are the victims of terrorism.

Why does he not come over and look at these pictures? Why does he not come over and look at the people he murdered?

I would love to take him by the back of his neck and stick his face in front of the people — those young girls that he murdered.

How many?

Every time I go to a meeting with Madame Rajavi, the first thing we do is look at the people who have died since the last meeting.

Many of them killed by that guy who stood in front of the UN.

I do not like murderers.

I was a prosecutor most of my life. I have an instinctual hatred of murderers, and particularly people who murder for political reasons and murder innocent women and let them get raped and tortured.

That is what this regime is about.

Suppose I had sat down and made an agreement with the Mafia. Suppose I had made an agreement with the Mafia. They would have said I was crazy.

Well, the regime tried everything to eliminate the MEK.

They have failed.

The MEK is stronger today than it ever was. It is represented in all 31 parts of Iran. It is at the core of these protests.

Remember, four days before we attacked the Ayatollah and took him out, the MEK invaded his palace successfully.

They killed over 100 IRGC members. They got right up to his chambers. They lost 100 people, including prisoners.

And please remember the contributions of the MEK going back to — oh my goodness — discovering for the first time that Iran was enriching uranium.

Who discovered that? Not the U.S., not the Mossad, not England, not the UN.

The MEK discovered it.

Natanz, Iran, in 2002.

Since then, there have been 130 revelations by the MEK of uranium enrichment and delivery-system expansion.

Without the MEK, we may never have known about it.

The scientists who were the experts in their program — the MEK set that program back 20 years by identifying those scientists.

It makes me so angry. It makes me so angry when people tell me the MEK really is not important.

I say to them: You are either a liar, you are infiltrated, or you are stupid, because you do not bother to read. You do not bother to read.

Do you know what best explains how powerful the MEK is and why they have to be the group we rely on for a provisional government?

Who would know best how powerful they are?

Their enemy, right?

This is what the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said about the MEK and about the riots that were battering Iran: “There was a triangle in these events, and the MEK was the main operational arm, and they actually had done a good job and prepared for months.”

Their enemy thinks they are doing a good job, but all the left-wingers think they do not have any power.

How about former President Ebrahim Raisi? “You cannot expect a movement against a revolution without seeing the MEK.”

These are the people who know how powerful they are, not the phony politicians. These are the people who have to fight them.

How about the parliamentary speaker, Ghalibaf? Recently: “At the top of the unrest are the MEK, playing the major role in organizing it.”

How about the civil-defense chief of Iran? This one is amazing. We should put it in big red letters:

“The entirety of the counterrevolution — the entirety of the counterrevolution — is built around the MEK.”

And how about the intelligence minister?

“Eighty percent of the blows we have suffered have been inflicted by the MEK.”

So here is my recommendation: Do not reach an agreement with them.

Remove the reign of terror.

Confine the attacks to the political murderers and the IRGC. Carefully do what you can to save the lives of civilians, unlike what they do.

The MEK does not need troops on the ground. They are not asking for it.

The MEK is not asking for money.

What the MEK is asking for is what Ronald Reagan did for Poland: Put your arm around them and say, “We stand with you for justice and freedom.”

Regime change in Iran by the people of Iran.

You all know the Ten-Point Program of Madame Rajavi. I want you to memorize it.

If you come on my website, I have a nice little summarized version, one card. I want you to give it to people to show them what they stand for.

They stand for the end of clerical rule, freedom of speech, freedom for women, gender equality, an independent judiciary so you can have fair trials instead of lynch mobs, which I think may be going on today.

Autonomy for the ethnic minorities.

The Shah wants to kill them. I mean, they are 30 percent of the population of Iran — the Azeris, the Kurds. He wants to kill them.

Justice and equal opportunity in employment, and a non-nuclear Iran forever.

Nothing brings you closer together than fighting for freedom together.

I hope the people of Ashraf are listening.

Last year, I had two very, very difficult situations.

I got hit by a car and I broke my back.

And then I had an attack having to do with my lungs being impaired during 9/11, and I almost died.

I received the last rites of my church, and some people thought I was going to die.

But I went up, had a dream, and I met my friend Peter Powers, who died before me. He was my lawyer and chief of staff.

And I asked him if I could have a conversation with Saint Peter so maybe I could — and he said, “It is not time yet.”

I wanted to have a conversation with Saint Peter to see if I could kind of — I am a lawyer — I wanted to schmooze him. I wanted to see if I could make a good little arrangement with him.

Peter said to me, “Do not worry. I am handling your case. I am your lawyer up here.”

He said, “You have got work to do back there.”

And you know the work I have to do?

It is for you.

God is not going to let me die until you are free.

Thank you.

I am not done until you are free.

I am going to end with the words of Psalm 56, written by King David:

“For you have delivered me from death, yes, my feet from failing, that I may walk before God in the light of life and freedom.”

And we are going to walk together in Tehran, in the light of freedom!

Previous article
Iran: 100% Alert Status for Army, IRGC, Basij, and State Security Force

RELATED ARTICLES