At the third session of the Free Iran World Summit 2025 in Rome, Senator Giulio Terzi, former Italian Foreign Minister and current President of the Senate’s 4th Permanent Commission on EU Affairs, delivered a forceful message of solidarity with the Iranian Resistance and it’s President-elect Maryam Rajavi. Addressing participants in Rome and supporters connected from Ashraf 3, Senator Terzi condemned the clerical regime as a “terrorist state” guilty of mass executions, including the 1988 massacre of 30,000 PMOI members and supporters.
He decried the recent hanging of Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, noting that such killings continue despite international appeals. Senator Terzi warned of Tehran’s global terrorism, citing the attempted 2018 bombing of the NCRI’s Villepinte gathering by an Iranian diplomat and the attack on former European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras. He called for the IRGC to be designated as a terrorist organization and for the regime to be fully isolated politically and economically.
Highlighting the NCRI’s exposure of Iran’s clandestine nuclear program, Senator Terzi endorsed Rajavi’s “Third Option” of no monarchy, no theocracy, and no appeasement, stressing that change must come from the Iranian people. He closed by presenting Maryam Rajavi with a parliamentary declaration of support signed by the majority of Italian MPs, joining over 4,000 lawmakers worldwide backing Iran’s democratic alternative.
The full text of Senator Giulio Terzi’s speech follows:
Dear friends, in this beautiful hall in Rome, [a hall] so reminiscent of so many fights and so much engagement for winning and gaining our freedom and the freedom of our people.
Dear Madam Rajavi, President Rajavi, distinguished authorities, dear friends of the Iranian Resistance, and especially to the dear friends of the Iranian Resistance who are with us not only in presence but online. They are seeing us, talking with us, and feeling with us from Ashraf—the great people of Ashraf who are here with us tonight to celebrate and to renew their engagement for our common commitment to freedom. We see them online, and a big greeting and wishes to them for continuing their extraordinary activity and their extraordinary engagement in support of Madam Rajavi, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and the Mojahedin—the free Mojahedin of the Iranian people.
It is indeed a great honor to be here with you today. This is the most beautiful image that we could have dreamt of: from Ashraf to Rome, a community of people who have the same values and the same commitment. Your people sadly know the unbearable and unacceptable burden of living according to the dictates of the Ayatollahs and their bloodstained laws.
Let’s recall what the Islamic Republic of Iran is and what it means since its foundation in 1979. It is a terrorist state that makes use of the death penalty to repress all forms of dissent; a terrorist state in all the actions it promotes around the world and against its own people. My thoughts today turn to the terrible summer of 1988, and you have seen the images of the heroes outside this hall. Young people, between their early teens and early 20s, who gave their lives and sacrificed their lives for the higher value of freedom. 1988 has been one of the darkest chapters in Iran’s history and probably one of the darkest in humanity’s history, when at least 30,000 MEK/PMOI were executed in a single month. What happened that year has remained unpunished. It is high time for justice.
#Italian Senator and former Foreign Minister @GiulioTerzi: “There is a clear alternative to the mullahs, and it is here. The third option means no foreign war, no religious dictatorship, and no appeasement. Change must come from the #Iranian people and the Resistance.” pic.twitter.com/1yE6b70AGH
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 6, 2025
The regime’s violence against its own people is endless. There were 975 executions in 2024, and in this first half of 2025, almost 600 executions. We are horrified by the recent hanging of two prominent Mojahedin, Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani. This crime was committed after three months of appeals and denunciations by the international community asking to avoid this new horror, but nothing was heard. Nothing was important for the mullahs. They decided to execute them anyway.
Italy has been a pioneer for over 30 years, even at the General Assembly of the United Nations, for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. Today, Iran with its regime is a pariah state. It must be completely isolated and neutralized. Your presence today is the most eloquent demonstration that another Iran is not only possible but also close to fulfilling its promises. Nearer than ever before. Now, it is time for courage.
The Iranian regime has spread terrorism all over the world. I think of my great friend, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament, who survived the terrible terrorist attack commissioned by Tehran only two years ago. I also think about the Iranian terrorist diplomat, Asadollah Asadi, who was convicted and sentenced for having planned a huge bomb attack in Villepinte against the NCRI Annual Convention in June 2018.
Because of the Ayatollahs, Iranian society is living through a never-ending nightmare. The morality police specialize in beatings, tortures, hangings, and persecutions against anybody, even those falsely labeled as Mohareb. The IRGC and similar apparatuses are pushed by a creed of death and violence. Faced with all this, Western countries and institutions, starting with the European ones, should not only raise their voices. They must decisively announce policies through the firmest political, economic, and security measures. It is a moral duty, even more than a political duty. It is time for deterrence, for containment, and for prevention.
There is a clear alternative to the mullahs: “Neither the Shah, nor the Mullahs.” The third option, the only possible one, this means no foreign war, no dictatorship, no appeasement. Change must come from the Iranian people and the Resistance. / Esiste una chiara alternativa al… pic.twitter.com/0njAnjdDho
— Giulio Terzi (@GiulioTerzi) August 1, 2025
Recent events have made clear that the survival of the regime is connected to the continuation of the forbidden nuclear program—a program that the resistance led by Madam Rajavi disclosed to the entire world and denounced at the highest international forums more than 20 years ago, and many times after that. Thank you, Madam Rajavi, for your constant efforts in that direction on behalf of the Iranian Democratic Resistance. It is the resistance that contributed to showing how much the IRGC is connected to the forbidden nuclear program in Fordow, in Natanz, and in Isfahan. The inclusion of the IRGC on the list of international terrorist organizations cannot be postponed, and that is a common endeavor for the European countries. It must happen. They must be banished from the international community and from every kind of business with Iran.
And this is because there is a clear alternative to the mullahs, and that alternative is here. It is with you. It is in your motto, Madam Rajavi, and we fully agree with it. Your motto is: “Neither the Shah, nor the Mullahs.” The third option is the only possible one. The third option, and again, to quote Madam Rajavi, means no foreign war, no religious dictatorship, and no appeasement. Change must come from the Iranian people and the Resistance.
We are not asking for money or weapons to bring down this regime. You are simply asking that no one stands with the regime.
It was an honor yesterday at the Chamber of Deputies to present you with the declaration signed by the majority of the members of the Italian Parliament supporting your cause, as done by over 4,000 lawmakers across 50 countries in the world. An impressive demonstration of unwavering support for the Iranian Democratic Resistance—a global call for freedom.
Once again, Madam Rajavi, welcome to Rome, to you and to all your marvelous people. God bless you. Thank you.