[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E706-E707]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FREE IRAN GLOBAL SUMMIT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. TOM McCLINTOCK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 30, 2020

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the following 
remarks by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National 
Council of Resistance of Iran. Mrs. Rajavi addressed the three-day Free 
Iran Global Summit in July 2020 in Albania, home to thousands of 
members of the principal Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e 
Khalq (PMOI/MEK).
  The online summit linked Iranians and 1,000 current and former 
government officials, bipartisan lawmakers and international 
dignitaries from 30,000 locations in 102 countries .
  Below are excerpts from Mrs. Rajavi's speech:

       This summit echoes the voice of the Iranian people's 40-
     year resistance against religious dictatorship and fascism 
     and for freedom and democracy.
       This is the voice of the largest, the longest-standing, 
     most sophisticated, and most serious organized resistance in 
     Iran's history, with the roaring river of its martyrs' blood, 
     and the moving chants of massacred Mujahedin members who 
     continued to insist on their belief to the end, against the 
     most murderous and cruel rulers.
       This summit echoes calls for the clerical regime's 
     overthrow, which were heard during successive uprisings from 
     December 2017 and January 2018 to November 2019 and January 
     2020. It is the people's calls for the regime's overthrow 
     after the conclusion of ``reformer vs. principlist'' 
     theatrics that was aimed at preserving this very regime.
       This summit is the voice of Resistance Units and rebellious 
     cities across Iran who have put an end to a history of 
     despair, incredulity, and inaptitude, replacing it with the 
     pledge of ``we can and we must.''
       Today's summit represents our enchained homeland in three 
     of its most prominent features: A rebellious and 
     revolutionary Iran; an Iran united in solidarity; and a free 
     and democratic Iran of tomorrow.
       We have come together to underline three monumental and 
     historic commitments that we have pledged to accomplish.
       Our first commitment is that we, the people of Iran and the 
     Iranian Resistance, will overthrow the clerical regime and 
     will reclaim Iran.
       Our second commitment is that we, the people of Iran and 
     the Iranian Resistance, will build a free and democratic 
     Iran.
       And our third commitment is to remain faithful to our 
     people's sovereignty and their vote; to not seek power at any 
     cost, but to establish freedom and justice at any cost; to 
     never return to the dictatorships of the Shah and the 
     mullahs. As the majority of elected lawmakers in the U.S. and 
     Europe have pointed out, we want to establish a democratic, 
     secular and non-nuclear Iran.
       From all indications, the ruling theocracy is at the point 
     of being overthrown.
       The uprisings that spanned from December 2017 and January 
     2018 to November 2019 and January 2020 were not about 
     reforming the regime. Rather, these uprisings sought to 
     overthrow the clerics.
       [The young] generation delivered the thunderous chants of 
     ``Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the [supreme] 
     Leader.'' ``We don't want the Shah or the Leader, we don't 
     want a choice between bad and worse.''
       This generation chants ``Our enemy is right here. They lie 
     when they say it is America.''
       The Iranian Resistance relied on precise and well-
     documented reports to register the figure of 1,500 martyrs 
     during the November 2019 uprising. The actual figure is much 
     higher.
       These uprisings checkmated the Iranian regime's political 
     apologists, advocates, lobbyists, and paid operatives, by 
     completely discrediting their deception and lies.
       The regime's puppets kept saying that it would be 
     inconceivable for the people of Iran to turn to uprisings and 
     revolution to overthrow the mullahs.
       They kept saying that change in Iran will not happen except 
     from within the regime itself. And time and again, they 
     repeated the mullahs' false claim about the PMOI/MEK's lack 
     of popular support.
       This explains why the mullahs and their mob of 
     interrogators and functionaries have unleashed against the 
     Resistance and the PMOI/MEK. They see themselves about to be 
     overthrown and are in agony over the fact that these 
     uprisings and rebellious youth have adopted the roadmap and 
     the strategy of the PMOI/MEK.
       The volcanic uprising in November washed away all unfounded 
     claims.
       It was proven that it is possible to inspire and organize 
     protests.
       It was proven that despite all the repression and crimes, 
     our people have a spectacular desire and readiness to 
     continue their uprising.
       And it was proven that a force capable of overthrowing the 
     regime has emerged and is lurking in the hearts of Iranian 
     cities.
       It is this rebellious force which, despite unrelenting 
     arrests, empowers resistance units to constantly regroup, 
     reproduce, and multiply themselves.
       Over the past two years, the emergence of rebellious cities 
     and the operations of resistance units against repression, 
     aimed at breaking the suppressive atmosphere, fueling the 
     engine of the uprisings, and mobilizing the people, have made 
     the regime feel the clearly and vividly.

[[Page E707]]

       If they [the mullahs] continue to pursue their current path 
     and course of action, namely belligerence, missile launches, 
     terrorism, intimidation and closing ranks, they will 
     inevitably crash head first.
       If they make the slightest retreat, namely, if they change 
     their behavior and abandon their suppression, terrorism and 
     belligerence, then they would undermine the very existence of 
     rule of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule).
       For this reason, Khamenei calls for the creation of ``a 
     young and Hezbollahi government'' and sees a monolithic 
     Parliament and a murderous Judiciary as the only way out of 
     the vortex of crises and the only way to preserve the regime.
       The international community's decision to activate the 
     snapback mechanism would be the coup de grace shot to the 
     regime's windfall achievements under the JCPOA and the policy 
     of appeasement.
       To date, the accelerating outbreak of the coronavirus has 
     taken the lives of at least 72,000 people in Iran.
       In March, Khamenei admitted that he sought to create an 
     opportunity and a blessing out of the coronavirus crisis.
       The abnormal surging trend of the number of corona virus 
     victims in Iran is a product of the criminal policies of 
     Khamenei and Rouhani. The strategy of launching mass 
     casualties as a barrier against the threat of an uprising and 
     eventual overthrow is exactly designed to pacify and 
     demoralize the Iranian society, rendering it hopeless and 
     paralyzed.
       During the breathtaking coronavirus crisis, the mullahs 
     continued to launch expensive satellites into space. 
     Concurrently, they pursued their belligerent and terrorist 
     activities in Iraq and Syria and escalated their ominous 
     nuclear activities to a new level.
       The ruling mullahs must answer why the value of the 
     country's official currency has plunged so much? Why is there 
     no ability to create jobs? Why is Iran one of the four 
     countries in the world with the highest inflation rates?
       And you must say where did Khamenei amass 100 billion 
     dollars in his executive headquarters?
       The 15 institutions and foundations under Khamenei's 
     control have a total of one trillion dollars' worth of 
     assets.
       We pledged to overthrow the regime, take back Iran and 
     restore all the violated and plundered rights of the people 
     of Iran.
       Our people must enjoy the right to be healthy, have 
     shelter, to employment, to organize and have syndicates, 
     autonomy for ethnic minorities, equal participation in 
     running society's affairs, gender equality and popular 
     sovereignty.
       They must be free of religious slavery and sexual 
     exploitation. They must enjoy freedom of expression, opinion, 
     and choice. They must be pulled out of poverty and be free 
     from fear; this means ending torture, executions, and social 
     and economic insecurity.
       We have pledged to restore all these freedoms and rights. 
     We make this pledge before the Iranian people and history. 
     This is our pledge to 120,000 martyrs who fell for freedom.
       Today, in Iran, one of the greatest battles and one of the 
     greatest tests of our time rages on between freedom and 
     religious fascism, between democracy and religious 
     fundamentalism.
       We urge all governments and international bodies to stand 
     with the people of Iran in this historic showdown against the 
     greatest threat to world peace and security.
       The Iranian regime's leaders planned to launch a major 
     terrorist attack against the Free Iran Grand Gathering in 
     Paris, in 2018. The terrorists in possession of the bomb were 
     arrested by the Belgian Police. The regime's diplomat, who 
     delivered the bomb, has been in jail for more than two years.
       For the first time, a serving diplomat faces trial in 
     Europe for direct involvement in terrorism. This is a great 
     disgrace for the regime, and it shows that the regime spares 
     no effort to commit any crime and pay any price to destroy 
     its alternative.
       The trial of the four detained terrorists as the 
     perpetrators of this terrorist act is a necessary step. But 
     the real decision makers were Khamenei, Rouhani, Zarif, and 
     Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi.
       As I have reiterated time and again, we have not come to 
     gain something for ourselves; we have come to sacrifice and 
     pay the requisite price.
       We are determined to restore freedom and people's 
     sovereignty in Iran, and this will happen.
       Long live freedom. God bless the people of Iran.

                          ____________________