Tehran regime is in a period of decline, desertions and divisions, which reflects its final phase
• Brutal crackdown is the mullahs’ response to massive, widespread social upheavals
• The recent Majlis (Parliament) elections paved the way for obtaining nuclear weapons, regardless of the impending domestic and international costs
• If Tehran were to abandon export of terrorism and contain itself within Iran’s borders, the Supreme Leader would lose dynamism, causing an implosion from within.
Message of the Iranian Resistance’s leader Massoud Rajavi to the nation
Tehran regime is in a period of decline, desertions and divisions, which reflects its final phase
• The recent Majlis (Parliament) elections paved the way for obtaining nuclear weapons, regardless of the impending domestic and international costs
• If Tehran were to abandon export of terrorism and contain itself within Iran’s borders, the Supreme Leader would lose dynamism, causing an implosion from within.
NCRI – In a message to the Iranian nation, broadcast on the Simay-e Azadi satellite television network, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance, marked the start of the new Iranian calendar year by passing on good wishes to the Iranian people on the advent of spring.
Mr. Rajavi described the previous year as one which saw the Iranian people and their resistance movement shouldering a praiseworthy and powerful struggle against the mullahs’ regime.
He noted three major realities, which he said were highlighted more than ever before through this struggle:
First, the simmering social conditions on the ground, which characterize the Iranian nation’s readiness for democratic change;
Second, the faltering and deteriorating phase of the mullahs’ regime, symbolized by the desertion of its top officials, and foisted on the regime’s unipolarization and single-legged stance;
Third, the ruling mullahs hysterical attempts to eradicate and obliterate the biggest menace to their regime, namely the Iranian Resistance, at every available opportunity.
The Iranian Nation’s Readiness for Democratic Change
In the first of his seven-part message, Mr. Rajavi pointed to the growing wave of spontaneous or organized social protest acts as well as the extensive boycott of the regime’s recent elections charade, and said, “Cruel punishments such as hangings in public, amputation of limbs, pushing people by throwing off cliffs, the string of so-called security measures, the never-ending oppression of women and youth, and many other such crimes committed by the regime are all carried out as a response to the massive and widespread social upheavals.
“That is why, on September 29, 2007, the new commander of the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] announced, ‘As the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic has recognized, the present strategy of the IRGC’s differs from the past, in the sense that currently the IRGC’s primary mission is to confront domestic threats, and afterward, in the event of a foreign military threat, the IRGC will lend support to the army.’ He characterized the IRGC’s strength as its ability to face up to ‘missile’ and ‘intelligence’ capabilities, and defined the 33-day war in Lebanon as ‘a model for fighting the enemy.’
“The IRGC commander also said on November 7th that, ‘Special operations by the United States of America against the Islamic Republic are possible. However, domestic threats are more dangerous than any other sort of threat.’
“During this period, the regime’s security budget saw a 20-fold increase. An Interior Ministry deputy, Mohammad Shaeri, added in this regard on August 16, 2007, ‘Last year, these credits were about $800 million, and now that figure stands at nearly $16 billion.’
“On August 13, 2007, the regime’s minister of Welfare and Social Security asserted that there are 9.2 million people in Iran who live under the poverty line, while more than 2 million are under absolute poverty line (on an income of less than a dollar). The price for a liter of gasoline has jumped 10 times, and in some parts of the capital, housing prices have rocketed nearly seven-fold. Moreover, on December 21, 2007, the mullahs’ former president, Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, described the ‘problem of inflation’ as ‘an incredibly serious problem.’”
The implosion phase
In another part of his message, Mr. Rajavi added, “The regime is undergoing a period of decline, gradual implosion, desertions, and divisions, which is characteristic of its final phase. This was clearly demonstrated during the recent elections. The unipolarization trend and narrowing of the regime’s ranks have reached new heights, and have wrapped the entire edifice of the regime and its three branches. The elections represented a turning point by virtue of the nationwide boycott and the political purges within the regime.
“Following the recent elections, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, enjoyed the fruits of the seed he had planted by his 2005 appointment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the regime’s president. Such a balance of power within the ruling elite has been unprecedented and extraordinary, not even seen during Khomeini’s reign as supreme leader. We are now faced with a crippled and unipolarized regime.
“Clearly, the main objective of these elections was not to purge the so-called reformist factions within the regime. This task was carried out during the March 2004 Majlis elections, and later, after Ahmadinejad’s ascent to power. Rather, the focus of the recent Majlis elections was to pave the way for obtaining nuclear weapons, regardless of the impending domestic and international costs. The goal was to establish complete dominance over the so-called ‘Fundamentalist Coalition’ allied with Khamenei, effectively close its ranks, and prepare it for future crises.
“On January 6th, nearly two months before the vote, Khamenei had said, ‘Weak individuals who tend to break under the dominance and control of world powers, and those who remain passive in the face of international gossip mongering are forbidden to enter the Majlis.’ Almost immediately, Ahmadinejad proclaimed the safeguarding of ‘the right to benefit from all the potentials of atomic energy’ to be the result of the elections.”
Pointing to eyewitness accounts from more than twenty-five-thousand voting booths across Iran, Mr. Rajavi referred to the people’s boycott of the elections as one of the largest ever, and said that the officially announced election results demonstrated that the mullahs have crossed all boundaries of fraud and vote rigging. “The organizers of these elections were all henchmen from the regime’s Intelligence Ministry and IRGC,” he added. “However, despite all the astronomical fraud, according to the regime’s official statistics, in Tehran and seven other major cities with more than a million people, the regime could not even muster more than five to twelve percent of the votes for its first-ranking candidates.
“On February 7, 2008, the IRGC commander had said, ‘The fundamentalist movement has now been revived again after 25 or 26 years, obtaining control over the executive and legislative branches … If the [paramilitary] Bassij Force wants to be involved in the elections, which it indeed can according to the Supreme Leader’s wishes, it must protect, consolidate, and expand the movement it has revived … We must attempt to expand the revolution all over the world … We must prepare ourselves for a difficult road ahead, and struggle to expand the revolution. All that happened with the aim of preservation or blocking or distraction of the revolution is now all in the past … Our revolution has now become a global phenomenon.’
“In a nutshell, this Majlis, similar to Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, is an assembly of henchmen and criminals of the regime, so that it can move forward on the path of nuclear weapons, terrorism abroad, and domestic oppression, without any obstacles, and [as Ahmadinejad has said before] without ‘any breaks or a reverse gear.’”
Mr. Rajavi welcomed the European Union’s acknowledgement that “the people of Iran deserve democratic and fair elections,” and that the regime’s elections were “neither free nor fair.” Mr. Rajavi then added, “Our quarrel with a regime that is founded upon the ‘Rule of the Jurisprudent’ has always revolved around the sovereignty of the people, popular vote, and a free election process monitored by international organizations, which sees the people submitting their equal, direct, and secret ballots. Therefore, one must feel ashamed of placing the terrorist label on the PMOI. Which one are we to believe: The illegitimacy of the regime elections or placing the terror label on the PMOI for defending free elections and the right of the Iranian people to sovereignty?
The Alternative
Mr. Rajavi said in another part of his message, “Last year, the regime’s lies and accusations against the PMOI through its radios and TV stations, media outlets, news agencies, and websites affiliated with the Intelligence Ministry amounted to around 9,876 cases. This, of course, does not include every single case because we have not monitored all media outlets of the regime. In addition, the books and materials published in different languages by the regime’s embassies and agents have also been excluded from this figure.
“The following non-exhaustive list of actions serves to give a more or less complete picture of the regime’s hysteric animosity towards the PMOI: Purchasing of western and Arabic TV time slots; Buying various unscrupulous reporters and sending them to Tehran so that they can write negative articles about the PMOI; Dispatching agents to offices of the International Red Cross; Arranging propaganda meetings against the PMOI in various Arabic and western countries; Initiating successive court cases against the organization in France, Iraq, and Germany; And, attempting to use Iraq’s judiciary as a tool to open cases such as the ‘killing of Shiites and Kurds,’ etc. However, the façade of all these propaganda and accusations conceals a boundless trepidation from a resistance movement, which can end the monster’s existence once and for all; despite every attempt made and every mean utilized to suppress it, this movement still stands strong.
“In November 2007, Mike Gapes, the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee chairman, said after his return from a trip to Iran, ‘When we went to Iran I certainly and I think my colleagues, were struck by the number of times that the Iranians wanted to raise the issue of what they call the MKO terrorist organisation or clique or some other term of that kind to a level of almost of obsession that it was on their program, they wanted us to talk about it and they raised it in lots of different contexts.’ On November 28, 2007, he posed the question to a British Foreign Ministry deputy, why was the PMOI so important for the Iranian regime?”
Heavy Blows to the Nuclear Projects
In another section of his message, the Iranian Resistance’s leader pointed to the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate about the regime’s nuclear projects, highlighted the role of deceptions and cover-ups by the regime reflected in this report, and said, “The contradictions contained within the report, especially during an election year which overshadows all else, was clear from the start, and at the time we said, ‘There is almost no one who believes this regime has abandoned its deceptions and secret activities for obtaining a nuclear weapon.’
“The National Council of Resistance’s (NCRI) President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, called on the NCRI Defense and Strategic Research Committee, PMOI’s social network and other Resistance sources within Iran, to not allow the religious fascism to prolong its deceptions, especially for making the atomic bomb. Soon after, the Iranian Resistance exposed the regime’s extensive clandestine activities, thus dealing a heavy blow to the mullahs’ nuclear program. When presenting their momentous revelations in Brussels on February 20, 2008, the Resistance’s representatives exposed the regime’s Command and Control Center working on the production of a nuclear bomb and development of nuclear warheads.
“The regime’s priority was to block the passing of another UN Security Council resolution against it. It took only three months, from December 3, 2007, when the NIE was released, until March 3, 2008, the day that the UNSC passed another resolution, for one of the regime’s largest deceptions and intelligence and political campaigns to be foiled. The regime utilized all its economic, financial, political, regional, and international leverages, to avoid another UNSC resolution. That is why the imminent effects of resolution 1803 far outweigh its content. There was nothing more desirable for the regime than to steer clear of another resolution.”
Iraq: The Frontier for the Resistance’s strategic face-off against the Regime
Mr. Rajavi said in another part of his message, “Iraq is the strategic frontier for the strategic face-off between the Iranian Resistance against the mullahs’ regime. The religious fascism has no place in Iran without instigating wars, crises, and exporting terrorism and fundamentalism abroad. The regime has drawn its front lines in Baghdad, and openly claims that Lebanon and the Palestine represent its ‘strategic depth.’ The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon signify the mullah regime’s arms and were established on the orders of Khomeini.
“If one day the regime were to abandon its export of terrorism and fundamentalism to other countries and contain itself within Iran’s boundaries, its central tenet, the Supreme Leader, would lose its dynamism rendering the implosion of the regime. For this reason, peace in the Middle East and democracy in Iraq represent the regime’s noose. It was no accident that on August 28, 2008, Ahmadinejad described the regime’s role in Iraq and the Middle East as ‘filling up the large power vacuum,’ and added that the American ‘power curve’ in Iraq is touching ‘line zero.’
“As such, a regime whose agents and operatives, as is common knowledge, entered Iraq under the shadow of the U.S., now wants to expel it from the Middle East. It thus is in a hurry to obtain a nuclear bomb. The great and free concessions the mullahs enjoyed in Iraq has made them overconfident. The state-run daily Kayhan, the mouthpiece of the mullahs’ Supreme Leader, wrote on March 7, 2007, ‘Currently, there are thousands of Iranian experts helping to rebuild Iraq, and because of this, there is a lucrative 10-year market worth at least 100 billion dollars for Iran. But, have the Americans got anything from Iraq? In the next 20-30 years, will they enjoy a return of even five percent of what they have invested in Iraq? We have, and can take advantage of, a lot of cards for the nuclear negotiations, and weaken international agreements against Iran. Through its regional influence, Iran has shaped a strategic situation, where the countries of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria have joined together, and this is a tremendous accomplishment.’
“But, on the other hand, the first signs of the effects from the terror listing of the IRGC and its extraterritorial Qods Force began to emerge in Iraq. Those who were meant to get the message soon found out that it is improbable for the U.S. to leave a power vacuum for the Iranian regime. In addition, Ahmadinejad’s trip to Iraq was a complete failure, so much so that in trying to save face, the regime claimed the PMOI had given $100 to each of the Iraqis who had staged protests against Ahmadinejad. The democratic forces of Iraq characterized the deafening and abrupt show of abhorrence on the part of the Iraqi people towards Ahmadinejad’s trip as the most important episode in the context of Iraq’s relations with the Iranian regime during the past five years. Today, the strategic call for the expulsion of the regime from Iraq has taken national proportions, and the balance of power has shifted in favor of the Iraqi alternative against the mullahs’ alternative.
“As far as the PMOI’s presence in Iraq is concerned, Iraqi Shiite and Sunni leaders have repeatedly testified to the legal status and political characteristics of the PMOI in relation to the people of Iraq. Today, it can be said with certainty that absolutely no one, except the regime and its operatives in Iraq, wish the PMOI to leave, and that all animosity against the PMOI in Iraq emanates entirely from the regime, which sees the PMOI to be the main roadblock of its warmongering and plans to dominate Iraq.
Ashraf City
Mr. Rajavi saved his concluding remarks for Ashraf City in Iraq, where thousands of PMOI members currently reside, saying, “Last year, Ashraf bore the brunt of the fiercest episodes of resistance and strategic conflict between the Iranian Resistance and the religious fascism. Throughout the year, and without any pause, the mullahs’ regime showed itself to be bent on dismantling Ashraf City by bombings, terror, threats, and intimidation. It cut off food, fuel, pharmaceutical products, water and electricity to Ashraf. It used the services of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the Iraqi government and media, to spread its propaganda and shameful lies. It placed road bombs on the path of Ashraf workers and sympathizers. It repeated its ominous requests during meetings with the Americans, and it continued to place pressure on the families of Ashraf residents.
But, through it all, the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance remained steadfast in their pledge to freedom and popular sovereignty in Iran. They did not crumble under the enemy’s threats, and thanks to the help of their sympathizers and countrymen, they built everything anew and created a novel balance.”
Mr. Rajavi ended his message by saying, “The major developments over the past year promise more achievements in the decisive year ahead. It is time to rise up. Only we can determine the future. The sounds of the breaking of chains imposed by religious fascism can now be heard, and Iran will be free.”