Honorable French citizens
Distinguished guests,
We gathered here as yesterday, the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people demonstrated their resolve for the overthrow of the clerical regime through their decisive boycott of the presidential election masquerade. The resounding no to the clerical regime was also a firm response on the part of the Iranian people to the policy of appeasement by Western countries, in particular France, vis-à-vis the ruling theocracy in Iran. This policy was manifested in its ugliest form in the disgraceful raid two years ago by 1,300 French policemen on the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the arrest of the President-elect Maryam Rajavi. The Iranian people rejected both the criminal mullahs and told the proponents of appeasement that their efforts to impede the road to democratic change in Iran will get nowhere.
After the mullahs’ presidential election and two years after June 17, 2003, we have gathered here to declare:
1. The massive boycott of the presidential elections is a definitive vote by the Iranian people to the clerical regime’s lack of legitimacy and the need to overthrow them. We declare to the world and especially the European Union that the in no way do the mullahs represent the Iranian people. After this election, any deal making with this totalitarian regime is doubly illegitimate.
2. The June 17 raid was carried out at the behest of the mullahs ruling Iran. The continuing pressure against the Iranian Resistance and keeping the case alive in France is due to the Iranian regime’s pressures. This dossier is completely empty. We call on the government of France to abide by the decisive vote of the Iranian people against the ruling fascism and not surrender to the demands of a bloodthirsty regime. It must close this unjust case immediately.
3. Two years of June 17, those fabricating this case acknowledge that there is no trace of terrorism in it. Earlier, the French Judiciary released all those arrested and suspended the orders to expel members and sympathizers of the Resistance. It also underscored that the Mojahedin conduct did not harm the security of France and the French public and reiterated that the dossier is empty. In these circumstances, we condemn the financial case trumped up against the Resistance. This is an attempt to keep this case alive.
4. The great nation of Iran that has offered 120,000 of its most valiant children to the cause of Iran’s freedom provides financial assistance to this regime. We declare that offering financial support to this Resistance is the least we Iranians in exile could due. We will carry out this duty regardless of whatever consequences it might have.
5. We condemn the access to the information in the June 17 case by the mullahs’ Intelligence Ministry and its operatives. We call on competent officials to end immediately this dirty collusion with the Intelligence Ministry, because it endangers the lives of many in Iran.
6. The election masquerade again reaffirmed that appeasing the mullahs and granting concessions to them will get nowhere and will not bring about reform. On the contrary, it only strengthens the position of the most extremist factions of the regime. We also urge Western governments to end this unethical and irrational policy and stay neutral in the fight between the Iranian people and the bloodthirsty mullahs.
7. The viable and effective response to the regime ruling Iran is neither appeasement nor war, but democratic change by relying on the Iranian people and their organized resistance. The Iranian Resistance’s President-elect proposed this option at the European Parliament last December and has been enthusiastically received on the international scene. Supporting and defending the Iranian Resistance, regardless of one’s political or ideological orientation, is a nationalist and patriotic duty toward bringing about change in Iran.
8. The terror tag against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran is the most damaging result of appeasement, the most important obstacle to change in Iran and the denial of the right of the Iranian people to resist. In the past few months, thousands of parliamentarians in different European countries and North America, international conferences of jurists in Paris, London, Rome and Oslo, major conventions by Iranians in Washington, DC, Brussels, Berlin, Texas and California and the declaration by 2.8 million Iraqi citizens have called for the removal of the Mojahedin from the terrorist list. In unison with the Iranian people, we say to the European Union and the United States that this label and all the resultant consequences must be quickly eliminated.
9. The completely false report by Human Rights Watch against the People’s Mojahedin is a desperate reaction to the expansion of the Resistance, the exposure of the mullahs’ nuclear project and their meddling in Iraq as well as increasing support in Europe and America for the removal of the Mojahedin from the terrorist list. So far, hundreds of parliamentarians, the most distinguished jurists, lawyers, and human rights advocates, political, artistic, social and religious personalities have voiced protests at this report, which is a disgraceful example of exploiting human rights for political ends. We strongly condemn this report and call on Human Rights Watch to retract this report and apologize to the Iranian people and the People’s Mojahedin.
