On July 17, 2026, the Luigi Einaudi Foundation hosted an international conference in Rome, Italy, focusing on the critical geopolitical crisis in Iran and the viable path toward a democratic alternative. The summit featured addresses by National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Maryam Rajavi; Senator Giulio Terzi, President of the 4th Permanent Senate Commission of EU Affairs; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Senator Andrea Cangini.
Speakers systematically analyzed the terminal vulnerability of the clerical regime, which remains heavily fractured by intense internal rivalries, structural economic collapse, and an inability to suppress a highly volatile populace. The conference established a unified international consensus rejecting both the current religious dictatorship and any regressive restoration of the monarchy under the Pahlavi family. Instead, participants strongly endorsed the NCRI’s Ten-Point Plan as the definitive blueprint for a secular, democratic republic. Furthermore, the delegation collectively called for an immediate end to Western diplomatic appeasement and demanded the absolute enforcement of terrorism sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Keynote speaker Mrs. Maryam Rajavi delivered an extensive analysis of a regime in terminal decay, emphasizing that the clerical dictatorship has reached an insurmountable political and economic dead-end. She detailed how the regime has used regional conflict as a domestic shield, implementing mass arrests and executing dissidents, including members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), to choke off popular mobilization.
However, she noted that recent developments—including deep fractures within the Assembly of Experts over a memorandum of understanding with the United States and intense internal opposition to Mojtaba Khamenei’s succession—have left the state uniquely vulnerable. She underscored that Iranian society operates as an active social volcano, fueled by generational grievances, negative economic growth, and the systematic destruction of the private sector by the Revolutionary Guards.
— Fondazione Luigi Einaudi (@fleinaudi) July 17, 2026
Mrs. Rajavi stated: “Even during the funeral of Khamenei last week, an event that was supposed to be a show of unity, a number of regime loyalists chanted ‘Death to the compromisers!’ against Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and threw stones at the regime’s foreign minister. Just twenty-four hours after the agreement was signed, the regime’s new supreme leader officially announced that, in principle, he held a different view.”
“A country sitting on a sea of oil and gas cannot even provide its own energy needs,” she declared. “By placing the economy under the control of the Revolutionary Guards, and foundations tied to Khamenei, this regime has destroyed the middle class and the independent private sector… As a result, even if the regime’s oil incomes surge or Iran’s frozen assets are returned, the country’s economic conditions will not improve because, as always, the lion’s share of these funds will be spent on building missiles and drones and funding the regime’s proxy forces in the region.”
“The regime will never abandon its nuclear bomb-making, war, and terrorism and it will never stop its arrests, executions, and continuous violations of human rights,” she warned. “However, it will not survive in the face of the uprisings and the organized resistance.”
Highlighting the organized capability of the domestic opposition, the NCRI President-elect declared, “The overthrow of this regime can only be achieved by the people of Iran and their organized resistance.” She expanded on the structural growth of the internal network, asserting, “This is especially true because the organized resistance and its Resistance Units are driving the uprisings toward the overthrow of the regime making them more organized and focused every single time.”
Concluding her speech with a sovereign vision for a free nation, she affirmed, “In their accelerating progress, the Resistance Units evolve to units of the Liberation Army and make up the decisive force for change in Iranian society, today.”
The regime has wasted nearly half a century. Instead of investing in democratic development, they used this time to build nuclear programs and missile cities.
As a result, Iran’s economy today is in free fall. For years, the GDP has turned negative. Iran’s economy has lost the… pic.twitter.com/MtAaKzWAMe
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) July 17, 2026
Providing the historical and institutional framing for this resistance, former Italian senator Andrea Cangini welcomed the delegation to the Luigi Einaudi Foundation, recalling that exactly one year prior, the foundation gathered to honor the memory of Mahsa Amini and introduce the alternative platform of the resistance. Senator Cangini emphasized the structural convergence between Western liberal democratic values and the foundational platform of the NCRI. He strongly condemned the deepening military and logistical collaboration between the IRGC and the Russian Federation, while noting a terrifying escalation in unlawful detentions and executions under the current theocracy.
Endorsing the programmatic viability of the democratic opposition, Cangini stated, “We presented the Ten-Point Plan of the National Council of Iranian Resistance, which is perfectly supportable from a liberal point of view.” He specifically isolated the progressive tenets of this framework, adding, “Two points stand out among those ten as essential for me: equality between men and women, and the secularism of the State.” Highlighting the strategic impact of a cohesive, unified democratic front against the clerical establishment, Senator Cangini concluded, “We have raised appeals for the unity of the opposition because we believe that the more the oppositions to the mullahs’ regime have the strength and capacity to unite, the more the regime will suffer.”
Reinforcing this international imperative for absolute regime change, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered a passionate endorsement of the domestic resistance and systematically dismantled the legitimacy of the Pahlavi monarchist faction. Giuliani described the current clerical leadership as chaotic, desperate, and reliant solely on street violence and proxy forces to broadcast terror and maintain control.
He asserted that the international community is fully aware of the bravery, intelligence, and organizational capabilities of the MEK under Rajavi’s leadership. In a scathing critique of the deposed dictatorship, Giuliani firmly rejected the dynastic ambitions of the Shah’s son, exposing how the previous regime plundered the nation’s wealth. He argued, “The MEK certainly does not bring the Shah back to power, we do not want another Shah in power, we have already lived through that era.”
Denouncing the historical revisions peddled by the monarchists, he continued, “He stole billions of money, he established the revolutionary guards to control the people.” Mayor Giuliani contrasted this legacy of corruption with the programmatic alternative presented by the organized resistance, concluding, “If you can truly look at what the National Council of Resistance offers through its Ten-Point Plan, it is about history, it is a way of evolving one’s life toward freedom, equality, and the basic values of the human being.”
“We are now realistically being able to see an end to the regime in Iran… The mullahs must go, the ayatollah must go, and they must be replaced by a democratic government which Madam Rajavi represents,” Mayor Giuliani said. “For decades you have not backed off, not looked away, not taken a break. When offered release in exchange for betrayal, your people told them to go to hell. That is courage.”
Senator Giulio Terzi reasserted the unwavering alliance between the Italian Parliament and the Iranian Resistance. Senator Terzi sharply rebuked self-proclaimed opposition groups attempting to market a restoration of the monarchic dictatorship. He shared a striking anecdote from a Senate Human Rights Committee hearing, where an academic naively suggested that sections of the IRGC maintained good relations with Reza Pahlavi to facilitate a managed transition. Senator Terzi vehemently rejected this appeasement narrative, characterizing the IRGC as a horrific terrorist octopus whose tentacles must be severed globally.
Dalla parte del popolo iraniano!
Sala gremita oggi in @fleinaudi con la Presidente del Consiglio Nazionale della Resistenza Iraniana @Maryam_Rajavi, il Presidente della IV Commissione del Senato @GiulioTerzi, l'ex Sindaco di New York @RudyGiuliani e il Segretario generale della… pic.twitter.com/sHhAKxYvKE
— Fondazione Luigi Einaudi (@fleinaudi) July 17, 2026
Expressing his deep alignment with the democratic coalition, Terzi noted, “I motivated my thankfulness by telling her that everyone present yesterday, as today, are indebted to her for bringing this extraordinary lighthouse of freedom, democracy, determination, equality, and pluralism that she represents with her great organization, or rather with all the organizations that form part of the Council of the Iranian Resistance, for the example she gives to the free world.”
He insisted on the absolute necessity of rigorous international enforcement following the EU Foreign Affairs Council’s February 2026 decision to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Emphasizing the total consolidation of the regime’s military and economic structures, Senator Terzi stated, “The IRGC are the Iranian state, and the Iranian state is the IRGC, because 210,000 or 220,000 men are embedded in the entire banking system, in all productive activities, and in all capacities.”
“Iranians strongly request a fully respected, reliable, democratic, republican leadership drawing its legitimacy absolutely not from present or past oppressors, but from the enormous sacrifices of its martyrs and from the extraordinary courage of its citizens,” the former Italian foreign minister said.
He concluded by commemorating historical victims of Tehran’s state-sponsored terror, from the 1988 massacre to modern assassination attempts against European politicians, asserting, “It is a terrorist state, and within it, there is a great wave of freedom that is driven by your movement, Madame Rajavi.”
"#Iran: oggi conferenza internazionale a Roma con Terzi.
Roma, 17 lug. (LaPresse) – Conferenza internazionale sull’Iran a Westin Excelsior (via Vittorio Veneto 125) a Roma dalle 16 alle 18, con leader politici italiani ed europei, personalità che hanno ricoperto incarichi… pic.twitter.com/mit6Njjr79— Giulio Terzi (@GiulioTerzi) July 17, 2026