Mrs. Rajavi, thank you very much for a very inspiring speech. It was really inspiring to hear how you communicated one of the most famous dreams that we heard from Martin Luther King. I think you were about 10 years old when he held his famous speech in Washington, DC. You have communicated one of the biggest challenges that we face today: the dictatorship of the mullahs in Iran. So, we can fully share: I have a dream today. And we shall overcome.
Mrs. Rajavi, thank you very much for a very inspiring speech. It was really inspiring to hear how you communicated one of the most famous dreams that we heard from Martin Luther King. I think you were about 10 years old when he held his famous speech in Washington, DC. You have communicated one of the biggest challenges that we face today: the dictatorship of the mullahs in Iran. So, we can fully share: I have a dream today. And we shall overcome.
We are very thankful that you came here to Norway again after 11 years. It is a great honour to have you here and to be part of your struggle for freedom and democracy in Iran. We wish you all the best in this struggle and hope that we can achieve this together. I really admire your perseverance. Recent history has taught us that it is a matter of time when we speak about dictatorships. Dictatorships have a limited time. I think this is also the case for the Iranian regime.
I also share your view that Norway really can do something. We have the capacity of putting pressure on the regime and we saw that at least until President Ahmadinejad became president or was appointed by the mullahs as president, we saw that representatives of Norway were almost competing to shake hands with the top leaders of Iran. It was seen as something very honourable and positive to build friendships and strengthen our relationship with Iran.
It is very depressing how we are being impressed by power – economic power – and we saw, I would say especially in the courtroom, in the European Court in Luxembourg, how economic power had influenced some countries to put the Mojahedin on the terror list. When the judge asked the lawyer from Great Britain, didn’t you do some independent investigation, they had to admit, no, we saw that France had put them on the terror list and then we put them on the terror list and then the European Union thought, ok France and Great Britain have put them on the terror list, we should do it as well.
So, it is really revealing this process how things like this can happen when a very strong and powerful regime has the power to make politicians act like they want. But, I think after this strong appeal of putting emphasis on human values and human rights and say straight out that these values are more important, I think Norway has to say, we have to demand respect for human rights from Iran. We have to demand profound change in the policy of Iran; otherwise, the Norwegian state and oil company has nothing to do in Iran, from my point of view. And, I also said this two years ago when one Iranian opposition [figure] Shirin Ebadi received the Nobel Peace Prize.
We have to side with President Rajavi in the demand that the People’s Mojahedin should be removed from the terrorist list and that threats of economic sanctions should not be listened to. I think we should also value the importance that the Iranian Resistance plays in the Middle East and can even play stronger if they are allowed to take part in free elections in Iran. They have demonstrated now a knowledge about what is going on in the war between Hezbollah and Israel. I don’t think we will have a lasting peace in the Middle East without a free and democratic Iran. It will be impossible as long as we have this regime trying to throw the state of Israel in the sea and support all the different terrorist movements; then, I don’t think we will see a lasting peace.
The People’s Mojahedin of Iran have become the most important resistance movement outside Iran. It has been a pleasure also to visit Camp Ashraf and see how they think strategically on how to communicate their view now through media so that the Iranian people can understand what the new Iran would look like. They demonstrate already today how they think the new Iran should look like. And, I think they have succeeded quite well in doing this so much that I think that fighting the Mojahedin is the top priority and probably the biggest post in the budget of the Iranian intelligence.
I hope that we can put pressure on our own government to help President Rajavi to succeed and actually go back to Tehran very soon. When I heard her today, I must say that she reminded me about other famous freedom-fighting figures and one word from the court case against Nelson Mandela back in 1963 came to my mind when she outlined the principles that she is struggling for before he went to prison for 27 years, he ended his speech by saying, these are the principles I have lived for. These are the principles I am prepared to die for.
And, I think that President Rajavi can fully agree with those words. Those principles she has outlined for us today, these are the principles she has lived for and these are the principles she is prepared to die for.
I thank you again President Rajavi for coming here and sharing this with us. Thank you very much.