On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran (CPID) in the French National Assembly held a conference on Iran’s situation. French MPs and renowned politicians attended Tuesday’s conference, expressing their utter support of the Iranian people’s uprising and the Organization Resistance movement. The keynote speaker of this event was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
“The Iranian people will continue to surprise and sweep away all the propaganda and myths about the regime’s stability and power. These people have demonstrated that their decision to topple the mullahs’ dictatorship is final,” Mrs. Rajavi said in her message to the conference.
While rejecting the false notions that Iran’s uprising has diminished and that Iranian people want a return to the deposed Pahlavi dictatorship, Mrs. Rajavi said: Some are in a hurry to make people believe that repression can stifle the uprising. No, never! Nothing will be the same as before, and Iran will not return to the past. Neither to the near past of a normalization of the mullahs’ dictatorship nor to the more distant past of the dictatorship of a shah.
“The people of Iran have made it clear in their slogan, ‘We have not made sacrifices to bow down to a criminal leader,’ and, ‘Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the [mullahs’] leader.’ The alternative is an Iran that looks to the future,” she said, referring to the popular slogans in the ongoing uprisings.
She urged the French government and parliamentarians to “not give in to the [regime’s] blackmail.”
“If France wants to stand by the women and young people struggling in Iran, it must recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the mullahs’ regime. It must hold the regime’s leaders accountable, and above all, it must prioritize the terrorist designation of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) by the European Union. Wasting time will only allow the mullahs’ killing and war machines to roll,” she said.
MP Cécile Rilhac, from the Renaissance party and the chairwoman of the CPID, presided over the session. Referring to the diverse political support of the Iranian Resistance and uprising at the conference, Mrs. Rilhac said: “we are the representatives of a democracy of the French Republic, and above all, we have this same desire to support the Iranian people in their search for democracy, but above all for freedom.”
While praising Mrs. Rajavi’s ten-point plan for the future of Iran, which defends democratic values, MP Rilhac said: “Among these democratic values and principles, there are free elections, i.e., the choice of universal suffrage as the only source of the legitimacy of government. And that is why we reject any form of dictatorship, whether it is that of mullahs who give themselves divine legitimacy to violently repress their people or the old monarchical dictatorship, which recognized a certain legitimacy by a bond of blood and kinship.”
After Mrs. Rilhac, MP Hervé Saulignac from the Socialist Party of France and the NUPES alliance spoke. He is also among the four Vice Presidents of the CPID. Mr. Saulignac referred to the destructive role of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which he described as the “backbone of the religious dictatorship.” He underlined that the IRGC forces are responsible for the bloody repressions during the previous demonstrations. Mr. Saulignac also pointed to the IRGC’s terrorist activities in Europe, particularly the foiled bombing of the NCRI’s annual Free Iran summit in Villepinte, France, on June 30, 2018.
While welcoming the recent resolution by the European Parliament, urging the member states to proscribe the IRGC, MP Saulignac stressed: “France will not be able to turn a blind eye forever or just vocally condemn the crimes committed by the regime. It will have to end the endless discussions the regime uses to legitimize itself.”
The uprising started almost 5 months ago; Iranian people, especially women, have moved the world with their courage & bravery in face of injustice, inequality, & discrimination.
This is the courage of a generation standing in face of death, arrests & torture.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/CgWCuhpH3K— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 7, 2023
The next interlocutor was MP André Chassaigne, the CPID VP and the Communist Group President in the National Assembly. While condemning the regime’s repression of protests, Mr. Chassaigne underlined the role of the organized Resistance movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and its internal network of Resistance Units in keeping the fire of the uprising aflame.
“Despite incredible repression, the people are resisting. This repression is part of the regime’s goal to create an atmosphere of fear to deter all who want to fight for righteous demands. Still, the movement continues and grows, and the determination of the Iranian people is intact. If the anger and the revolutionary momentum continue in this society despite the repression, we owe it a lot to the resistance units formed for several years inside the country by the organized opposition, the MEK,” he said.
The next speaker was Mr. Phillip Gosselin, MP from the Republican party, who joined his colleagues in praising the role of the Iranian Resistance as the trailblazer of the ongoing uprising in Iran. He also paid tribute to tens of thousands of martyrs who fell for freedom, mainly the 30,000 1988 massacre victims, who were mostly MEK members. Recalling that article two of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1789, which reaffirms people’s sacred, inalienable rights to resist oppression, he said: “When we say that, with the hindsight that we French people have, we can clearly see how today we must reaffirm this right to oppression for Iranians.”
Renowned French politicians also addressed Tuesday’s conference. Among them was Ingrid Betancourt, former Colombian Senator, and French-Colombian hostage. Ms. Betancourt referred to the regime’s incessant demonization campaign of the MEK, the NCRI, and Mrs. Rajavi and how this campaign goes hand in hand with the regime’s terrorist activities. She particularly mentioned the regime’s foiled bombing of the NCRI’s 2018 Free Iran Summit in France.
“When you are faced with a terrorist state, you must organize. We do not have the right not to organize in the face of an attack by a terrorist force. So, for the Iranian resistance, getting organized also means having the hierarchical structure necessary to deal with all this instigation, this disinformation, these attempts at infiltration, and these murders,” she said.
Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, former European Parliament’s VP, also addressed the conference and its attendees. While referring to the current situation in Iran and the regime’s imminent downfall being on the horizon, he stressed the necessity of a viable alternative. He then praised four decades of organized resistance by the NCRI and MEK, saying that “A real alternative to the mullahs’ dictatorial regime must have certain characteristics, certain attributes which are first. Organization and structure because the struggle is a struggle to the death. The regime physically eliminates its opponents.” He also referred to the Iranian Resistance’s vast international support and its popularity inside the country, while rejecting the regime’s talking points, rehashed by its pundits and lobbyists abroad, that the MEK lacks popular support.
Jean Pierre Brard, a former French MP and a longtime supporter of the Iranian Resistance, also reiterated his support of the current revolution in the making in Iran, and the NCRI’s role as a viable alternative to the regime. He also paid tribute to the brave Iranian people who have shed blood for freedom. “Let’s be united and think of tomorrow so that the people who shed their blood can live free by raising their heads and raising their children according to their convictions.”
Iranians will not allow their revolution to be hijacked by so-called oppositions run by the regime
The regime’s overthrow establishment of a true republic with separation of religion &state are NCRI’s core principles proposed to all freedom-loving Iranians &forces#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/n88EI1K51h— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 7, 2023
Ms. Dominique Attias, a renowned French Lawyer, was also among the speakers who emphasized their support of the Iranian Resistance and the revolution in the making in Iran. She particularly referred to women’s rights both in the current uprising and the Iranian Resistance. “Women in Iran have already paid the price, during the time of the Shah who martyred them. They paid their tribute, in 1988 [massacre], in [November] 2019 uprising, and they continue to pay the price today.”
This fact was also reiterated by Ms. Sarvenaz Chitsaz, Chair of the NCRI’s Women’s Committee. “The NCRI is the only movement in Iran which, from the beginning, proposed a plan and published a program on all fundamental issues of Iran. It adopted the plan on women’s freedoms and rights 35 years ago,” she said.
