• Mullahs’ regime in utter weakness is driving the region towards unprecedented crisis. This crisis is avoidable only through a regime change in Iran. West must immediately recognize Iranian people’s right for regime change.
• Prerequisite for Ashraf residents’ transfer to Liberty is the providing of minimum guarantees by the international community; otherwise the transfer must not proceed
• Realistic solution is that the second group move to Liberty only after first group has gone to third countries
NCRI – On Saturday, February 11, coinciding with the 33rd anniversary of the anti-monarchial revolution in Iran, in a great gathering in Paris, thousands of Iranians, while being supported by a number of prominent European and American dignitaries, reminded that a major development is looming in Iran and a democratic change, as a solution to avoid an unprecedented regional and international crisis, is at hand.
Speakers at the conference, presided over by the President of the Norwegian committee of Friends of a Free Iran Lars Rise, included: Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance; Philippe Douste-Blazy, UN Deputy to the UN Secretary-General and former French Foreign Minister; Bill Richardson, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Governor of New Mexico (2003-2011); Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff (2001-2006); Ed Rendell, former Governor of Pennsylvania and former General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Spencer Abraham, former U.S. Energy Secretary under President George W. Bush Administration; Ambassador Phillip Crowley, Assistant Secretary of State (2009-2011); Robert Joseph, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security; John Bruton, former Irish Prime Minister and former EU Ambassador to the U.S.; General David Phillips, Commander of U.S. Military Police (2008-2011) and the commander responsible for Ashraf residents’ safety and security; John Sano, former National Clandestine Service’s first Deputy Director and member of the directorate of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; Emille Blessig and Jean-Pierre Brard, members of French National Assembly; Jean-François Legaret, Mayor of Paris 1st District; Aude de Thuin, Founder and president of the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society; André Glucksman, member of the “French New Philosophers”; Nontombi Naomi Tutu, human rights activist and daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Praising Syrian people’s uprising in her speech, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi expressed her abhorrence over the disgraceful participation of the Velayat-e faqih regime in the savage suppression of the defenseless Syrian people and underscored the need for action by the international community for protection of the defenseless people of Syria.
She described the execution of 120,000 of political opponents; catastrophic repression of women, oppressed nationalities, and followers of various religions; destruction of the majority of the middle class; obliteration of the private sector; fall of at least 40 million people below poverty line; unemployment standing at 35%; 40% inflation rate; and unprecedented drop in the nation’s official currency as a small part of the disgraceful record of the clerical regime’s 33-year rule.
With regard to the residents of Ashraf, Mrs. Rajavi said: Although the Government of Iraq has continuously breached its agreement with the United Nations, the Iranian Resistance and the Ashraf residents have shown their utmost flexibility to save the peaceful resolution. However, they stress on the demand of securing the minimum assurances whereupon the security and dignity of the Ashraf residents, particularly the women, would be achieved. She added, “At my request and in order to show their goodwill, 400 Ashraf residents accepted to move to Liberty with their vehicles and movable property. However, they stressed that no one else will go to Liberty until the minimum assurances are fulfilled.” She emphasized that anyone truly desires preventing the defeat of the peaceful solution and a recurrence of massacre has to defend these minimum guarantees.
Participants and speakers at the conference stressed on the following points:
1. The Iranian regime is facing four major dilemmas that have placed it at a critical point and on the verge of downfall:
• a nose-diving economy;
• widespread and escalating social discontent;
• significant change in the regional equilibrium through the Syrian people’s uprising and the prospect of toppling of its dictator which has placed Iranian regime’s regional coalition at the brink of dissolution;
• Power struggle at the highest level of the regime, challenging the position of Khamenei as the regime’s leader;
2. To escape its demise, the Iranian regime seeks its sole option in accelerating its attempts to obtain nuclear weapons and exporting fundamentalism and terrorism. By insisting on this policy, the mullahs have placed the region and the global community before an unprecedented crisis and confrontation. Yet this face-off is avoidable and the only reliable solution is the democratic change in Iran by the people and the organized resistance. This democratic change in Iran is completely at hand and the 2009 and 2011 uprisings in Iran clearly demonstrated the Iranian society’s explosive potential, especially in the youth.
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3- As Mrs. Rajavi has reiterated, sanctions are an essential element in a firm policy against the regime; however, sanctions alone cannot stop this regime from obtaining nuclear weapons. The ultimate solution is a regime change. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and the National Council of Resistance, the principal and democratic opposition to this regime which enjoy an organized and coherent structure along with a broad social base, are the main and most effective factor for regime change in Iran and recognizing them is an unavoidable need to guarantee peace and tranquility in the region and the world.
4- Condemning the pressure imposed and suppression applied to Ashraf residents for their relocation to Camp Liberty, participants reiterated that the prerequisite for relocation of Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty is to provide for their minimum assurances. Freedom of transfer of movable properties and vehicles of residents to Camp Liberty, no presence of police inside camp’s small area, freedom of movement, and a minimum of area for residents are the least demands that if Government of Iraq is unwilling to provide, it then shows its intention to turn Liberty into a prison and therefore, there would be no reason for the residents to relocate.
5- Praising Mrs. Rajavi’s courageous initiative where as a goodwill gesture 400 residents would relocate to Camp Liberty with their movable property and vehicles, the conference accentuated that without realization of the remaining conditions, the relocation of other residents would not be possible. It added that the only realistic way left is that only after the departure of this first group to third countries, would the next group move to Camp Liberty.
6- Conference called on the United Nations, especially Mr. Kobler, to be impartial and courageously defend the minimum rights of Ashraf residents. By setting aside political considerations, Mr. Kobler can undoubtedly achieve these minimums. It was emphasized that while Camp Liberty does not conform to international human rights and humanitarian standards, an Executive Document for the Arrangements of Transfer needs to be signed by the Special Representative of Secretary-General and the representative of the Iraqi government so that Iraq could not violate its verbal commitments as in other cases.
7- The meeting called on the international community, especially the United States, to use the extensive political and economic leverages at their disposal not to allow Maliki’s government – who came to power and remains in power only with U.S. assistance – to again suppress and massacre defenseless Ashraf residents who in 2003, U.S. had officially and legally assumed responsibility for their protection. The meeting called on the U.S. and the EU to direct and support the UN, especially Mr. Kobler, in line with the abovementioned commitments and while allocating essential resources to the UNHCR immediately begin accepting Ashraf residents, especially the ailing and the wounded. The conference specifically called on the U.S. government to revoke the illegitimate and illegal terrorist tag on the PMOI so that the main obstacle on the way for relocation of the residents, and the main pretext for Maliki to suppress them, would be pushed aside.
Mr. Douste-Blazy strongly condemned the conditions in Camp Liberty and said, “This is a legitimate demand that the police forces who were involved in the massacre of the residents should not be present in Camp Liberty”. Calling Camp Liberty a “detention center in violation of all international conventions”, he called on the UN Security Council to act. He said: “We are all Ashrafis since residents of Ashraf symbolize resistance against dictatorship”.
Bill Richardson said, “…here is the need for democracy in Iran… we need to protect the residents and the human beings who have suffered enough at Camp Ashraf. …my hope is that the United States government delists the MEK. …This is the time to protect human beings at Camp Ashraf. Ensure that the resistance, that the group that is assembled here by Mrs. Rajavi stays strong, remains strong…”
John Bruton stated: “…I believe strongly, that there is a better way. There is a better way than sanctions, a better way than military force… And that means, my friends, support for Madame Rajavi and her organization …we need to have the democratic transformation that Madame Rajavi is seeking.”
Ed Rendell said, “Mrs Rajavi has shown real leadership. What UN has done has been words. Where are the UN, EU, US and the international community? Mrs. Rajavi has done everything possible. Why are we not doing what we must?”
He added: “…the United States is not the sovereign in Iraq. Well, that’s the mindset that our government has had from the beginning… Was the United States the sovereign in Kosovo? …Was the United States the sovereign in Benghazi and Libya when… [we] saved hundreds of thousands of Benghazi residents from genocide?”
Andrew Card stated, “I am troubled that the US government gave its word but failed to keep it.”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 11, 2012