At the Free Iran 2026 World Summit in Paris, former US Senator Robert Torricelli delivered a powerful message of solidarity to NCRI President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the residents of Ashraf-3, and the internal Resistance Units risking their lives across Iran. Senator Torricelli sharply critiqued the French government’s restrictions on the summit’s public rally, firmly dismissing the remnants of the Pahlavi monarchy as a discredited force with no place in Iran’s democratic future.
Addressing recent geopolitical shifts—including Tehran’s announcement regarding the closure of the Strait of Hormuz—Senator Torricelli emphasized that international agreements with the regime are fundamentally unreliable.
Senator Torricelli maintained that true national liberation cannot be outsourced to Washington or foreign powers; it must be won on the streets of Tehran by the Iranian people themselves. He honored the staggering sacrifice of 40,000 martyrs, declaring that a million more will rise to take their place. Drawing an inspiring parallel to Ukraine’s unprecedented defense of freedom, Senator Torricelli concluded with a fierce call for global solidarity, expressing his fervent hope that the Iranian people’s long nightmare of tyranny is finally nearing its end.
The full text of Senator Robert Torricelli‘s speech follows:
“For 47 years the Iranian government has never kept a deal. They can’t keep their word. They don’t know the difference between truth and a lie.”
– @bobtorricelli pic.twitter.com/GNDj0ioKGd
— OIAC: Organization of Iranian American Communities (@OrgIAC) June 20, 2026
Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker [Mr. Bercow], we have a saying in our Congress that a meeting isn’t over simply because everything’s been said, unless everything’s been said by everybody. And with that in mind, I’ll be uncharacteristically and mercifully brief.
Mrs. Rajavi, it has been one of the honors of my life to stand by your side these many years. There must be moments when the burden is overwhelming.
I think, though, I speak for everyone who is here, everyone who is denied their right to speak today in the streets of Paris, those brave souls sitting in prisons in Iran waiting to breathe their last breath, and every brave soul on every street corner, in every apartment, in every car, in every corner of Iran waiting to take up this fight: God bless you, and thank you for everything you’ve done.
To our friends in Ashraf [3], I have shared this with you before, but it bears repeating again. I remember as a child when we would gather among our friends, the first thing we would ask when we met somebody new: “What did your father do during the war?”
The day will come, in every cafe and every restaurant in Tehran, indeed in every town across the country, where children will say with proud voices and lit eyes: “When things were the darkest in Iran, when hope was almost lost, my father, my uncle, my aunt, my sister, my brother was in Ashraf [3]; they never gave up, they never compromised, they never gave in!”
When you wander through the streets of this magnificent city, occasionally you stumble upon a brass plaque, where a Frenchman of extraordinary courage paid the sacrifice but took a stand for a free France.
To those of you in Resistance Units across Iran, risking your lives and the lives of your family and everything you hold dear, mark my words: your children will wander the streets of Tehran and point to plaques on the walls all over that proud city, noting that that is where you took your stand in the fight for a free Iran.
I am a lover of France and all things French, so I will say but a single phrase in response to today’s events: France, you are better than this.
So, for me, this struggle has come somewhat full circle. As a young White House aide in 1979, I stood on the White House lawn as thousands of young Iranians protested on the streets of Washington. And SAVAK units were there to start fights, create trouble, and disrupt the proceedings.
Forty-seven years later, to come to Paris and hear the French government say that they were denying our right, our rally, because followers of Pahlavi might cause trouble, tells me two things: Pahlavi has learned nothing and is discredited as any force in any future Iran. Go away.
So, we’re in a new chapter, and I recognize that I’m speaking somewhat from a different perspective of many of you, as an American. Indulge me.
This new chapter is uncharted, and it has enormous risks. A few hours ago, the Iranian government announced they’re closing the Strait of Hormuz. That didn’t take long.
I think everyone in this room knows that that [ceasefire] MOU is not worth the paper it’s written on. For 47 years, the Iranian government’s never kept a deal. They can’t keep their word. They don’t know the difference between truth and a lie. It didn’t end the action; it paused it.
I also know that when the military actions began, expectations soared. Mind it. I will admit it. “This is the end, they’re finished, we’ll measure it now in days, not weeks.”
That was never going to be, and we all know it. Countries are not liberated by foreign air forces, even a great one. That doesn’t happen. It doesn’t even happen really because of invading armies.
And one of the things that brought me this many years ago to the NCRI is: they never asked. They wanted the friendship of all free people, they wanted the encouragement of liberty from all nations, but they always knew this fight was their own.
.@bobtorricelli: As a young White House aide in 1979, I stood on the White House lawn as thousands of young Iranians protested on the streets of Washington. And SAVAK units were there to start fights, create trouble, disrupt the proceedings. 47 years later, to come to Paris and…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 20, 2026
It wasn’t going to get won from Washington or from the Pahlavi mansion in Beverly Hills. It’s going to get won on the streets of Tehran because soldiers lay down their weapons, shopkeepers close their doors, agents of the regime refuse to go to work, people take to the streets, and they decide that tyranny must come to an end.
I know it’s easy for us to say. I’m not paying the price, and my God, the price is high. Forty thousand dead because they took to the streets to speak for freedom. Forty thousand!
Here’s what the regime does not know: they took those 40,000 martyrs’ lives, but every one of them was a father, a sister, a brother, a cousin, or an aunt. And in the wake of that 40,000 passing, a million will rise to bring down this tyranny. A million will take their place!
I know some of us have known each other so long that you’ll forgive me this moment. I never find the need to apologize for my country. We’ve earned our place in history in the vanguard of freedom, as have many of your nations.
And to quote one of your greatest citizens, Mr. Shakespeare: I did not come here to praise Donald Trump. Indeed, as a former member of the Senate Democratic leadership, I find myself in a somewhat awkward position.
But it all stops at the water’s edge.
It may be true that the military action was not well-conceived in all respects. It is certainly true that it was never going to bring down the regime. We understand that, and I acknowledged it.
But let me tell you what is worse than a military action which may not have been well-conceived: doing nothing. Doing nothing is the worst crime of all.
Yes, this belongs to the Iranian people. None of us can substitute for their courage, but everybody can lend a hand and do what they do best.
Today, Iran has no navy to patrol its shores against people who want to enter or leave in the cause of freedom. It has no air force to patrol against people who take to flight or would attack them from the air. All those IRGC barracks and bases from which the people came to kill your children are shattered and destroyed.
I may stand alone, but I feel in good company. I am proud of every single American sailor and airman who put his life on the line for a cause that is not his own. Of all the countries in the world that are not threatened by Iran, it’s the United States. To each of them, I am enormously proud.
On NewsMax from Paris with Senator Robert Torricelli, I highlighted how the Iranian regime, in collaboration with the remnants of the monarchical dictatorship and its notorious secret police SAVAK, threatened the #100KFreeIranRally to no avail. Even the banning of the rally as a… pic.twitter.com/xBGrGgKhlA
— Alireza Jafarzadeh (@A_Jafarzadeh) June 20, 2026
So the stage is set. We’ve all been here so many years, shared so many words and so many hopes. It is my fervent hope to never see you here again. This nightmare, God, must end.
I can only tell you this, which I know is in all of your hearts too: no matter how long, no matter how hard, no matter what it takes, we are in lockstep in the cause of freedom.
Mr. Minister [Mr. Kuleba], when the history of free people is written, Ukraine will not be mentioned. It will have its own chapter. What you have done in the cause of freedom to inspire people everywhere is almost without precedent. I am embarrassed to tell you, I didn’t believe you could come this far or do this much. Your people have no peer.
And I mention it because I want the next chapter, after the story of Ukraine is told, to move seamlessly and effortlessly and naturally: that one fight followed another, seamlessly. That the cause of freedom in Ukraine was earned, just as the cause of freedom in Iran was achieved.
Thank you all, God bless you.