wikipediaBruxelles, 22 settembre 2018
Madam Maryam Rajavi, dear Friends, I wish I could have attended in person this important conference.
I would like to thank you all for the opportunity of sending this message. A message of really close participation, strong solidarity, and commitment for the historic struggle engaged the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its coalition, to bring freedom, justice and prosperity to all Iranians. After many months of widespread revolt and popular uprise we can see, finally, a light at the end of the tunnel.
The solution for a regime change which could best suit the expectations of those who have suffered under the dictatorial regime of the Mullah’s is – evidently- the one proposed by the Leader and designated President Maryam Rajavi with the ten-point plan for a democratic Iran.
Iran -dear Friends- is one of the most fundamental and worrysome security challenges for the European nations. Yet European leaders unexplicably insist on a course of action for Iran very different from President Trump policy. A policy aimed at pushing back and suppress Iranian activities which threaten neighbours, which support terror, extremism and sectarian behaviour in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere.
To some European officials it seems difficult to admit that – on Iran – the Trump administration is one hundred per cent right. It still seems difficult, for many Europeans, to recognize that there is no alternative to the more assertive approach the US has taken: tougher sanctions and intense diplomatic activity with like minded countries. Europeans and Americans must be united on what it is really at stake, and act accordingly.
At the end of last year, massive anti-government protests organized and supported, in large part, by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, MEK did spread all across Iran, with participants in every major city and town chanting unprecedented slogans like “death to the dictator.”
Contrary to the expectations of those who did make every effort in appeasing Iran through a very bad nuclear deal, the economic plight for the ordinary Iranian has dramatically worsened. After the nuclear deal Regime has only become more violent, more corrupt, more repressive day by day. The fairy tale of a reformist and democratic Iran has proven to be nothing else than … a fairy tale.
Protests have continued over the past eight months, despite a very heavy crackdown. Some 1,000 people were arrested in August alone. The wave of protest has left no doubt that the Iranian population overwhelmingly rejects the ruling theocracy and strives to establish a representative government. Indeed, this has always been the platform of MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran coalition ,which calls for free and fair elections, secular governance, safeguards on the rights of women and minorities, and peaceful relations with the neighbours.
To great anxiety of the ayatollahs and their apologists in the West there is a viable, truly democratic alternative to a dictatorial regime. A reality that the ayatollahs and those who, in the West, at any cost, want to appease the Mullah’s, have tried to conceal for years and years.
By hiding the real nature of the Iranian threat, European Governments and EU Institutions risk of throwing away an extremely important opportunity to bring peace to the Middle East. Donald Trump, and his foreign policy team have explicitly declared their support to the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and regime change.
Having served for many years at the United Nations also as Italian Ambassador I cannot but encourage in the strongest possible terms multi – faceted initiatives aimed at ending and denouncing Iranian blatant violations of International Law, Teheran’s support of global terrorism, proliferation of WMD, massive human rights violation, genocidal and sectarian behaviour in the Middle East. UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, Council of Human Rights are all primary venues where Iranian bellicose and extremist policies must be condemned, contained and reversed.
Western democracies should seize the opportunity of the upcoming Sept 26 UN Security Council Session to focus on the Iranian regime’s nefarious conducts. The UNSC should firmly address Iran’s growing use of terrorism. Europe has direct interest on this issue. Even recently, in 2018 there has been a marked surge in Iranian state sponsored terrorism in Europe.
A case in point was on June 30, when European authorities foiled a plot to bomb the international rally in Paris in support of Iran freedom. If it were not for the vigilance of European security agencies, the results would have been catastrophic.
German authorities arrested an Iranian diplomat travelling to Austria. According to a German Federal Prosecutor that diplomat had given the order for the terrorist attack and personally handed over the bomb to his accomplices before they were all arrested in Belgium. A similar plot involving Iran was thwarted in Albania last March.
The Iranian regime is committed major terrorist attacks in a way similar to Daesh. In fact, Iran represents a much greater threat than the Islamic State: because of the huge financial, military, and intelligence resources the regime can deploy – directly or through proxies.
Silence and appeasement about Tehran’s unbridled terror are scandalous and dangerous. The first priority for every state should be to protect its citizens. Our message today to the European leaders must be: Seize the moment; be united with the US against the theocratic regime; act in support of the Iranian people and their aspirations; hold Tehran accountable for its malign activities.
Thank you
