This conference, which is always relevant given the nature of the regime and how they keep power, was taking place while Iranian diplomat terrorist Assadollah Assadi is on trial in Belgium because he attempted to blow up the 2018 Free Iran summit in Paris. That summit was attended by 100,000 supporters of the NCRI and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This plan was approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.
He was arrested just two days after handing the bomb over to the terrorists who were driving it to the conference (and who are also on trial) by German authorities who handed him over to the Belgian police. The plot was foiled by European authorities and no one was hurt.
Because of this heinous act and the numerous other accounts of terrorism by Iranian “diplomats” in Europe, NCRI President Maryam Rajavi said at the time: “Most regime diplomats are either Intelligence Ministry agents or [Revolutionary Guards] IRGC officers or have received training on terrorism and espionage to serve that purpose. With the Iranian people calling for the mullahs’ overthrow in the streets, it is particularly important to adopt a decisive policy vis-à-vis the regime’s terrorism and shut down its embassies in other countries.”
In her speech today, Maryam Rajavi urged the governments of the world to do five things to end Iranian regime terrorism. These were:
- Closing the regime’s embassies and all centers for espionage and terrorism (i.e. cultural centers funded by Iran)
- Blocking international financial transactions by regime agents and entities
- Expelling the regime’s agents, no matter what role they play, and enshrining this in law
- Stopping security and intelligence services from communicating with the regime’s agencies
- Publically exposing the regime’s terror plots, agents, and front companies
She said: “The right policy can be summed up in a single word: firmness. That means firmly dispensing with everything that enables the regime’s terrorist activity, and firmly responding to every single criminal act… I hope that all governments respond positively to these calls because their own people’s interests and security depend on such acts of firmness.”
The Assadi plot
Struan Stevenson, a former Member of the European Parliament, said: “Iranian regime diplomat Assadollah Assadi is now being tried in Belgium. It is the first time in the European Union’s history that a diplomat is being tried for terrorism. All regime leaders must be held to account and indicted for acts of terror in international tribunals. All embassies of the mullahs must be closed as factories of terrorism.”
British MP Bob Blackman explained that he, as an attendee of the 2018 Free Iran conference, is a plaintiff in the civil case against Assadi and is pleased that the criminal case against him has now begun.
He said: “This is a significant step to bring the regime to justice for its terrorism in an independent court and [the] beginning of this trial is a major setback for the regime, its extensive two-year conspiracies, and efforts to save its arrested diplomat in Belgium. There is no doubt that the Iranian regime would want to escape justice, but I want to declare as one of the plaintiffs in this file that we will not allow this to happen.”
Terrorism is in the regime’s nature
Of course, the regime is intrinsically linked with terrorism in the Middle East and abroad through its support of proxy groups like Hezbollah and its targeting of the Iranian Resistance.
Maryam Rajavi said: “Terrorism is the essence and fundamental nature of this regime and it is inseparable from it… This has been the clerical regime’s method which it does not abandon until the day it is overthrown by the Iranian people and the great Army of Freedom.”
She was quick to note that neither appeasement nor incentives had stopped the regime in the past, which is why the only solution was the firm policy detailed above.
Governor Tom Ridge, the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security, said that the regime is “the Central Bank of terrorism” with their embassies turned into “branch banks”. He echoed the call for firmness, stating that appeasement has never and will never lead to peace with Iran.
John Rood, the former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, stated that “the Iranian regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism” and has been since 1979, not just through its embassies, but also the funding of terror groups elsewhere.
He said: “It is important that we continue the maximum pressure campaign to limit the ability of the regime to export terrorism and its malign influence. When necessary, we must take firm decisive action to deter the regime’s terrorist activities. We need to recognize that terrorism is part of the fabric of this regime. Countries must very closely monitor and surveil the activities of Iranian diplomats, and when necessary shut down the regime’s embassies.”
Kamel Nourani Fard, the representative of the Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle (Khebat), explained that most terrorist activities around the world have the regime’s fingerprints and this will not change so long as they are in power.
US Senator Mike Braun said: “I always see the Iranian regime as a threat to our national security. I support resolutions that call out the Iranian regime for their atrocious crimes.”
Other instances of regime terrorism
The Iranian regime has been responsible for terrorism across the world for 40 years, but they most consistently target dissidents, especially the MEK, and use a disinformation campaign to reduce support for the Resistance before big attacks; with Maryam Rajavi warning that the anti-MEK propaganda has recently been stepped up again.
Stevenson said: “For the past 41 years, the mullahs’ policy has boiled down to hatred of the world. To achieve their constitutional objective of spreading their revolution, the regime has supported Bashar al-Assad, Shiite militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and spread terrorism across the globe. Every country the mullahs have targeted is now a smoking ruin.”
He also cited a new wave of arrests and sentences for MEK members in Iran.
Fatmir Mediu, the leader of the Albanian Republican Party and Elona Gjebrea, the Secretary of the Albanian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, explained that Iran presents a threat to Albania’s security. This is because the MEK has its Ashraf 3 headquarters near Tirana, which the regime has tried to attack multiple occasions, leading to the expulsion of three Iranian diplomats and the ambassador.
Blackman said: “We have a handful of evidence to show this regime’s heavy involvement in terrorist activities on European soil and by providing the court with all these evidence, we will ensure that this so-called diplomat will be held accountable for the malicious crime he was planning to commit at the order of his boss, [regime Foreign Minister] Javad Zarif, as well as [the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei himself.”
