In a video message to the Free Iran 2024 World Summit in Paris, Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs, highlighted the increasing global support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the growing list of transgressions by the Iranian regime.
Bloomfield attributed the ongoing war and conflict in the Middle East to Tehran and pointed out the use of Iranian drones in conflicts across Ukraine, Sudan, and Ethiopia, as well as the regime’s aggression in numerous European countries and the United States.
He proposed several measures to counter the Iranian regime’s actions:
- Stopping Weapon Flows: Preventing arms shipments to Yemen and Gaza.
- Imposing Consequences for Hostage-Taking: Ensuring serious repercussions, such as halting Iran’s oil exports if hostage-taking continues.
- Providing Satellite Communications: Enabling Iranian citizens to communicate freely without government surveillance.
- Closing Iranian Embassies: Shutting down Iranian embassies in the West due to their abuse of diplomatic privileges.
- Pursuing Justice: Holding regime officials accountable for the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, including through international tribunals.
Amb. Bloomfield called for Western governments to transform into agents of positive change, supporting the Iranian Resistance and preparing for the inevitable change in Iran. He emphasized that while the change must come from within, the global community must stand with the Iranian people to uphold justice, peace, and a brighter future in a free Iran.
The full text of Amb. Lincoln Bloomfield’s speech follows:
Good afternoon and greetings to Madam Rajavi, to her great team at the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and to her guests, to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq in Albania and inside Iran, and to all the supporters of the organized resistance inside Iran and around the world.
It’s been an interesting weekend where we can see that the NCRI enjoys enormous support that’s been growing year after year. At the same time, our governments have had to deal with increasing problems from Iran, not only the nuclear threat, but also aggression across Europe, and in America, human rights abuses in Iran with major executions and abuse of women, and destabilization in the Middle East.
“We do not seek to replace the current ruling power with another.” Rather, the goal is to return power to “its rightful owner – the Iranian people”. (Forty-five years of PMOI promoting participatory government in Iran; still misunderstood/mischaracterized in Western capitals. pic.twitter.com/c7BukeAi7E
— Lincoln Bloomfield (@LBJunior) June 29, 2024
Unfortunately, as we meet this year to the long list of transgressions, we have to add my view that Iran was behind the Hamas attack on Israel last October 7th and bears responsibility for the terrible destruction that has occurred since then. All of the weapons that Hamas used came from Iran, and all of the threats from other non-state militias, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the Shia militias in Iraq, all of these are directed by the Quds Force.
Meanwhile, we see Iranian drones killing innocent Ukrainians, and those drones are now in Sudan and Ethiopia. There’s trouble all across Europe. We’ve seen aggression by Iran in Albania, in France, in Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and the UK, and many problems in the United States, including threats to our drinking water and attempted abductions and assassinations. The question is, how do we make it stop? What do we do? I think the supporters of the NCRI and Madam Rajavi, above all, know what the answer is.
Her 10-point plan inspires us all. But our governments need to rethink Iran’s policy. It’s time for them to take more action to stop this problem.
We need to stop the weapons flowing to Yemen and Gaza. We need to tell Iran that there must be no more hostages or else serious consequences will ensue. And by that, I mean not allowing their oil exports to exit the Persian Gulf.
We need to give satellite communications to the citizens of Iran so that they don’t have to be monitored by their own government. They can communicate and listen to the outside world. We need to close Iran’s embassies throughout the West.
They’ve abused diplomatic privileges for far too long, and they don’t deserve to have immunity where they can transport bombs on civil airliners, as they did with a bomb that almost blew up our rally in 2018. And we need to pursue justice for all of the victims of the 1988 massacre of up to 30,000 political prisoners, most of them MEK. Even though President Raisi is gone, there are still people in this regime at high levels who are implicated in the massacre.
They deserve to be brought to international tribunals to answer for these crimes. We need to get ready for the change that’s coming because change is coming in Iran. It’s not a happy thing to talk about the pain that the Iranian citizens are going through with such a poor economy, with such a corrupt and immoral regime in charge.
It won’t be easy, but we need to stand together. We need to turn our governments into agents of change, positive change. No one’s talking about bombing Iran.
The change must come from within, but they deserve in Iran to know that the people of the world stand with them and will do what we can to uphold justice and peace and a brighter future in a free Iran. Thank you.