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Global Conference Concurrent With the Conviction of the Clerical Regime’s Terrorist Diplomat by a European Court

Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

NCRI-50Maryam Rajavi:

  • Conviction of the regime’s terrorist diplomat in the Belgian Court of Antwerp represents the conviction of the entire clerical regime
  • Shut down regime embassies, blacklist MOIS and IRGC, and prosecute and deport their mercenaries

On Thursday morning, February 4, 2021, simultaneous with the court ruling on the clerical regime’s diplomat bomber, Assadollah Assadi, and his accomplices in Antwerp, Belgium, a global online conference was held, where Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and dozens of prominent figures from various European countries, the United States and Canada, joined thousands of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) members based in Ashraf-3 (Albania) as well as the supporters of the Iranian Resistance worldwide.

The ‌Belgian court rejected Assadollah Assadi’s claim of diplomatic immunity and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The three intelligence agents, Nasimeh Naami, Mehrdad Arefani, and Amir Saadouni, were sentenced to 18, 17, and 15 years in prison, respectively. Their Belgian citizenship was also revoked.

Speaking at the global conference, Mrs. Rajavi stated that the conviction of the clerical regime’s diplomat and his intelligence agents was the conviction of the regime in its entirety, a momentous triumph for the Iranian people and Resistance, a heavy political and diplomatic defeat to the Iranian regime, and an irreparable blow to its strategy of exporting and spreading terrorism. She therefore congratulated the Iranian people as the main victims of the clerical regime’s repression and terrorism. Mrs. Rajavi added: Two decades ago, the mullahs sought to enchain the MEK and the organized resistance of the Iranian people by pursuing cases filled with false allegations and through terror listings in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France. But the Iranian Resistance shattered all those chains and obstacles. One after another, justice in different countries acquitted the Iranian Resistance of the false terrorism accusations, and today it condemned real terrorism and terrorists operating under the banner of Islam and Shiism, namely the clerical regime’s religious dictatorship.

Mrs. Rajavi said the trial shows that the regime feels threatened and desperate to counter its democratic alternative, and thus is prepared to take enormous risks. It marks an end to deceptions by both factions of the regime to cover up their roles in terrorist crimes and shows when it comes to savagery and pure evil, “moderates” and “hardliners” constantly try to upstage one another. It is the entirety of this regime that has established an organized infrastructure of state-sponsored terrorism to evade its own downfall. There is absolutely no daylight between the regime’s institutions when it comes to committing crimes and terrorism. The terrorist Qods Force is practically integrated with the regime’s Foreign Ministry in many areas. And, in most cases, the Foreign Minister himself acts as a servant and lackey of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Mrs. Rajavi added that the conviction of the clerical regime in the Court of Antwerp is a very significant step, but it must be continued until the regime’s entire terrorism apparatus is dismantled. Beyond its legal repercussions, the ruling by the Court of Belgium bears certain obligations for Europe and the international community. Therefore, as prominent European parliamentarians and dignitaries have declared, the Iranian Resistance once again calls on governments of Europe to change their approaches and policies and:

  • Shut down the regime’s embassies and other centers in Europe, all of which are hubs for terrorism.
  • Hold the regime’s Foreign Minister accountable. It was proven that his ministry, and the embassy and diplomat under his control were involved in planning and preparing for the potential mass slaughter.
  • Designate the entire Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC as terrorist entities.
    Prosecute the regime’s leaders who are in charge and are the masterminds of its terrorism infrastructure. They must face justice.
  • The mullahs’ intelligence agents and mercenaries under any cover must be prosecuted and expelled. Granting them refugee status or citizenship must be considered a red line.
  • Any form of normalization of diplomatic relations with the regime must be made contingent on dismantling its terrorism infrastructure and activities.

Prevent the regime from deceiving western intelligence services and from taking advantage of such contacts to protect its own terrorists.

Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that the clerical regime’s terrorism is not distinct from its domestic suppression or from its nuclear weapons program. Neither is it distinct from its warmongering and crimes in the Middle East or from its missiles program. Efforts to contain and control the regime’s nuclear program will not succeed unless they are coupled and linked with a firm stance against violations of the human rights of the people of Iran, and with the eviction of the mullahs from the Middle East as well as the dismantling of the regime’s missiles program. The day after the conclusion of the nuclear deal between the regime and the P5+1, I reiterated on behalf of the Iranian Resistance, “If the P5+1 had been firm, the Iranian regime would have had no other option but to fully retreat and permanently abandon its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon, and specifically, it would have abandoned uranium enrichment and completely shut down its bomb-making projects.” We also pointed out, “One must decisively insist that the regime must stop meddling in, and withdraw its forces from, the entire Middle East.” On the same day, we emphasized, “Any agreement that overlooks the Iranian people’s human rights only encourages suppression and ceaseless executions by the regime, and tramples upon the rights of the people of Iran, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter.” Over the past six years, each of these facts and assertions has been proven one by one.

A number of prominent European, American and Arab politicians, many of whom were private plaintiffs in the Belgian court attended the global conference. Speakers included Ingrid Betancourt, former Colombian presidential candidate; Stephen Harper, former Prime Minister of Canada; Pandeli Majko, former Prime Minister of Albania and the current State Minister for Diaspora; General James Jones, former National Security Advisor to the U.S. President and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; Aljo Vidal Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament; Tom Ridge, First U.S. Homeland Secretary; Michèle Alliot-Marie, former France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence and Minister of Interior; John Baird, former Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs of; Giulio Terzi, former Italian Minister of Foreign; Riad Yassin Abdallah, former Yemeni Foreign Minister and Ambassador to France; Fatmir Mediu, former Albanian Defence Minister and the current leader of the Republican Party in Albania; David Jones, former Brexit minister in Theresa May’s Government; Kimo Sassi, former Finnish Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade; Ambassador Robert Joseph, former U.S. under secretary of state for Arms Control and International Security; Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, former Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State; Patrick Kennedy, former US Congressman; Linda Chavez, former White House director of public liaison; Senator Robert Torricelli; Also members of the British Parliament including Matthew Offord, Bob Blackman, Steve McCabe; members of the European Parliament including, Milan Zver from Slovenia, Gianna Gancia from Italy, and former MEP, Struan Stevenson, Paolo Casaca; Michèle de Vaucouleurs, Jean Michel Clement and Frédéric Reiss members of the French National Assembly; Martin Patzelt, member of the German federal Parliament; members of the Italian Parliament including, Stefania Pezzopane, Antonio Tasso, Senator Roberto Rampi; as well as Colonel Wesley Martin; Tahar Boumedra; Jean-François Legaret, former Mayor of Paris’ 1st District ; Lars Rise, former Norwegian Representative; Elona Gjebrea, Secretary of the Albanian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee and former Deputy Interior Minister.

Simultaneous with the conference, supporters of the MEK and the Iranian Resistance in various countries held rallies in front of the clerical regime’s embassies or the foreign ministries of European countries in Belgium (Antwerp), France (Paris), Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich), Austria (Vienna), and Switzerland (Geneva), and called for the revision of EU policy towards Iran, and the closure the regime embassies, as well as the blacklisting of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards and expulsion of their mercenaries from European countries.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
February 4, 2021

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