Below is speech by Rudy Giuliani who served two terms as the mayor of New York, and that during the most difficult time of the history of his city. His leadership during and after the 11th of September was very impressive, and he was named Person of the Year by Time Magazine:
Thank you. Thank you very much. President Rajavi. All of the distinguished guests that are here. I am very honoured to be here. To speak up on behalf of a cause that is a cause for all of us. You know, the greatest role that the United States has played in human history is a role that is its most constructive and it’s most uplifting. It’s when we help people who seek human dignity, freedom, peace, the rule of law. When we help them to achieve their dream.
No nation in history other than the United States has given as many lives, has sacrificed as much to liberate other people. The First World War, the Second World War, thousands and thousands of Americans dieing to liberate Europe. The Cold War, to try to liberate the world from communism. The liberation of Kuwait. Our activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya. Hard to think of another country – big, great country – that has given so much of its youth to liberate other people.
Why has America done that? America has done that because your dream is the dream of America. That people living in freedom, people living in dignity, people living under the rule of law will make for a peaceful world for all of us. And until we can achieve that, we’re not going to achieve peace.
So, there’s no place on Earth right now where human rights are violated more, where human dignity is desecrated more than Iran. All of us have made mistakes in the past. The United States. All of you. But, we learn from our mistakes. We grow from them. Your movement stands for a free Iran, democracy, the rule of law, a nuclear-free Iran, equal rights for women, freedom of religion. You stand for all the things that we stand for. We’re allies. We have the same dreams, the same hopes, the same ambitions for our children and for our people. You’re our best hope of achieving that dream for Iran.
Now, there’s a decision pending here in Geneva that is of critical importance. The UN High Commission can just, with the stroke of a pen, set up a monitorship for Ashraf. A monitorship by the United Nations. That decision should be made now, without delay, without going through hurdles and all kinds of bureaucratic procedures.
Because the longer it takes, the more people will be injured, the more people that may be murdered. So we should all, with one voice, demand that the Commissioner make that decision as soon as she returns from New York. Immediately! Not three days from now. Not a week from now. Not a month from now. But now!
Here’s what I learned today. One of the reasons that they’re delaying making this decision is because they can’t figure out if they set up a monitorship, how they’re going to protect the monitors. Well, if you can’t protect the monitorship, what about protecting the people at Ashraf?
If the monitors are under danger, what kind of danger exists for the people in Ashraf? That should require you to make the decision quicker, faster! I’m sure we can find people to help protect the monitors. We can solve that problem. But the only way to solve the problem for the people in Ashraf is to have UN monitorship now, not later, and then to set up a program so that people can be relocated to countries where they can live in peace, in freedom, in dignity, including to the United States of America.
You know, the United States has a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. But it strikes me that at this point in our history, there is no greater enemy to the United States than Iran. But it’s not Iran. It’s not the people of Iran. It’s not your people. Our enemies are the mullahs and the man who right now, ironically, is in New York while I’m here in Geneva. (laugher) Ahmadinejad!
I told Madam Rajavi before that if I was still mayor, I could find a lot of places to send him in New York. I won’t say what would happen to him… (laughter) But we have a common enemy. Ahmadinejad, the mullahs, the theocratic regime in Iran. And by all fair, independent, objective analysis, whether it’s the United Kingdom or it’s the European Union, the designation in 1997 of terrorism was a designation that, for whatever strategic purposes at that time, no longer has any validity. It no longer exists.
This organization and related organizations, whatever the history in the past – and we all have a history. All of us: America, Iran, all of us. Of mistakes. But, your organization stands for peace, for freedom, for democracy. My goodness! – for the rights of women! For freedom of religion. So by every objective analysis, that designation should be removed by the United States of America.
It seems to me there’s only one country that agrees with us on the designation. Only one left! Iran. Well, that should tell us something. Not only should it be removed because it’s unfair and has no basis in law or fact any longer. It should be removed because the designation itself is killing people. It is leading to justification for murder.
When we look at what happened last April at Camp Ashraf – which is not the first time that it’s happened – over 30 people dead, 300 people injured because the regime in Iraq is trying to ingratiate itself with Iran, it argues in favour of number one: lifting the designation immediately. Number two: for us to give a support to all of those who are seeking freedom for Iran. We missed a great opportunity a few years ago when right out of the streets of Iran, there was a cry for freedom, for democracy, for human dignity, for peace.
I am ashamed that my country turned its back on those people. I remember a different kind of America. I remember the people of Poland seeking freedom. And I remember an American president, Ronald Reagan, standing with the people of Poland. I remember him going to the Berlin Wall and saying, “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Well, we need that kind of leadership now. We need that kind of leadership from America. And from the Western world. To say to Iran, “tear down the mullahs, tear down the theocracy and throw out Ahmadinejad!”
You know, we supported regime change in Egypt. We supported regime change in Libya. Now recently supported regime change in Syria. All of those dictators had a terrible record of human rights violations and have done terrible things to their people. But it’s nothing in comparison to what the mullahs and Ahmadinejad have been doing to the people of Iran since 1979. Nothing! So, if we’re for regime change in Egypt, and we’re for regime change in Libya, and we’re for regime change in Syria, all three of which do not constitute a particular threat to the United States of America by the way, horrible situation. I believe we’re on the right side, but they don’t pose a strategic threat to my country. Iran does pose a strategic threat to the United States of America. Iran, under its present government, is the single biggest State sponsor of terrorism in the world. And terrorism is directed at the United States and at Europe.
I believe that my country should be for regime change in Iran. And we should be clearly on record seeking regime change there. And instead of turning our backs when people in Iran rise up to seek freedom, we should stand with them! We should give them moral support. We should give them economic support. We should give them every kind of support we can possibly think of because if they succeed, we succeed. We should be clearly for an Iran that is nuclear-free and make it clear that we will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power. No how, no way, never.
And finally, let me reiterate that we should all be for setting up a monitorship immediately for camp Ashraf. No more delays. No more excuses. If things in Ashraf are so bad that we have to protect the monitors, well then we have to protect the people of Ashraf. And we have to begin a sensible program of relocation because they are no longer safe in Iraq, which is a horrible comment to make after all that we sacrificed for Iraq. That the Iraqi Government would allow people and participate in the slaughter of people at Camp Ashraf. But that’s the reality.
So, I have a dream, and it’s the same dream that you have for Iran. And I believe this will happen. And I believe it will happen the way the Berlin Wall fell, when the Soviet Union ended, and people are now able to go to church in Poland and the Czech Republic. And nobody ever thought it would happen six months before it happened.
I believe this is going to happen. I don’t know when, but when it happens, it’s going to happen really, really quickly. I have a dream of an Iran that’s a free Iran, a democratic Iran. I have a dream that President Rajavi will be able to return to Iran.
And that could do so much for the world. What a great civilization. What a great history. What a great people! How horrible that they’ve been held in such oppression for so long. Just think of what we’ve been denied. Just think of what the human race has been denied. An Iran that is free. An Iran that is peaceful. An Iran that respects human rights, human dignity, the rights of women, religious freedom. My goodness, what that could do for the world. You’ve already, your civilization, your culture has given this world so much. You’re being deprived of giving it now. That’s what we’re fighting for. That’s what we will achieve. God bless you, and God bless you in your quest for freedom.
Thank you