[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.
____________________