On 15 December 2018 Patrick Kennedy made a Speech in Albania with the Iranian opposition members who were joining a video conference of the gatherings of Iranian communities simultaneously held in 42 cities and capitals of Europe, North America and Australia on Saturday, the following is an excerpt from this speech:
Faced with growing popular protests across the country and unable to quell them with brutal crackdowns. The mullahs’ regime has stepped up its terrorist plots against the NCRI abroad which its senior officials blamed for the unfolding uprising. The regime in Tehran knows that the synergy between the protesters in Iran and the NCRI threatens its very existence. In 2018 the regime has intensified its disinformation and propaganda campaign against the Iranian resistance in order to tarnish the NCRI’s image and reputation and pave the way for more terrorist plots.
Major social media companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook have all in recent months suspended and removed hundreds of fake accounts and websites connected to the Iranian regime’s disinformation operation. There has been a surge of terrorist plots targeting the Iranian dissidents and the NCRI here in Europe soil this year three separate Tehran backed terrorist attacks in France Albania and Denmark were foiled by close cooperation between the police and the security and judicial authorities of several European countries. The foiled plots are reminiscent of the regime’s assassination and terrorist campaign against the Iranian dissidents and expatriates in Europe during the 1980s and the 1990s.
At the time the EU and its member states responded firmly by expelling the regime’s intelligence personnel from EU member states and cutting off diplomatic relations and suspending the dialogue with Iran.
But today the response has been very, very weak and disproportionate to the emerging threat. The targeting of the organized resistance movement demonstrates the regime’s fear of the NCRI coalition and its main constituents, the PMOI/MEK as the democratic alternative to its rule.
It shows that the NCRI is a real force for change and that the ten-point democratic platform presented by the NCR President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi offers a viable roadmap for the people of Iran to establish a fair and free and democratic secular republic in Iran at this crucial juncture in history.
That is why Mrs. Rajavi’s democratic platform is gaining support among Iranians both at home and abroad as well as receiving international recognition by parliamentarians and dignitaries in Europe and North America as the most viable alternative for the future of Iran.
The popular protest in Iran is continuing and expanding across the country despite a brutal crackdown by authorities.
An estimated eight thousand arbitrary arrests were made since the protests began in late December last year. And according to the Iran Human Rights Monitor at least 58 protesters and 12 more died in detention under torture. Today a majority of people in Iran live below the poverty line while unemployment, inflation and corruption are rampant. However the regime continues to spend. Iran’s wealth on sponsoring terrorism and its proxies in the Middle East. The authorities also prioritize financing repressive forces like the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and by Basij at home to guarantee that the theocracy grip on power continues. And they do this instead of addressing the economic crisis at home.
People from various social strata are taking part in the nationwide protests. Women, teachers, retirees, ordinary citizens who have lost their savings and pensions due to the sudden bankruptcy of financial institutions controlled by the IRGC. The strikes by workers in the sugar cane factories and the steel mills as well as the student protests across the country are the latest examples of the growing popular dissent against the theocratic regime.
Thus the unfolding uprising in Iran is not only social restrictions and economic woes, it’s a clear expression of popular demand for a genuine democratic change in that country. The Supreme Leader and the regime officials including IRGC commanders and Hassan Rouhani had in recent months admitted publicly to the key role NCRI and the PMOI/MEK are play in organizing these protests.
The Mullahs do not know what they’re up against. Right here are wonderful media laboratories that are helping to disseminate the true message of what’s going on in Iran to your fellow Iranians who otherwise would not know what’s really happening in the world. So thank you for spreading the true message of what’s going on in the real world other than allowing these mullahs to spread their propaganda.
At the same time these officials are trying to tie the uprising to the United States Israel and Saudi Arabia in order to depict the legitimate popular demands for change and increasing support for the NCRI as some sort of foreign initiative rather than the projection of a democratic aspiration of the Iranian people. This proves that theocracy has hit an impasse and is not willing and able to address the legitimate demand of the people for genuine change because its survival depends on the continuation of domestic repression and its support for terrorism.
The regime has therefore responded with increasing Lee posing executions arbitrary arrests of protesters and other activists in Iran while stepping up its terrorist activities and espionage against the NCRI and dissidents abroad. The human rights situation in Iran continues to deteriorate with brutal crackdowns and massive arrests. And executions by the authorities in response to the ongoing popular protest and strikes against the regime across the country. The Iranian regime also continues to carry out inhuman.
And degrading punishments. Like public hangings, flogging, amputations and eye gouging to name a few. The reality is that the human rights situation in Iran has only gotten worse under Rouhani’s tenure, despite the claims of him being a force for moderation. Under Rouhani’s regime the regime is complementing this domestic repression with terrorist plots against dissidents overseas. The U.N. General Assembly and the Human Rights Council adopted over 60 resolutions with the latest one this past November condemning this regime and its systemic human rights violations. Iran is the leading executioner per capita with many of those hangings carried out in public.
One of the most heinous human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime is the massacre 30 years ago in 1988 of thirty thousand political prisoners. This was done as a result of a fatwa issued by then the Supreme Leader Khomeini.
And a majority of the victims were members and supporters of PMOI and NCRI.
Amnesty International described the massacre as an ongoing crime. In a report just published last week the report came out from Amnesty International and they say categorically that we ought to investigate finally what happened in 1988. And where the bodies are buried and bring those responsible to justice once and for all.
It’s clear that we have seen these terrorist plots foiled against a gathering eventually arrive in Paris.
We’ve seen it again here in Tirana. And yet the Iranian embassy here in Albania has doubled in size. The Albanian government ought to kick out every single Iranian diplomat in this country for what they were part of bringing terrorism to this country. They brought terrorism in to Albania and they should not be permitted to allow to continue here or anywhere in Europe. When you consider that they tried to bomb officials elected officials from all over Europe not only in Paris, all over Europe, these events happen and they happen in the United States as well. Where once again, the secret intelligence tried to have a bomb go off in the United States of America. So that is why I want to echo Madam Rajavi in saying that IRGC ought to be put on the terrorist watch list.
Let me conclude by saying I’ve visited many of you today here and is amazing what you have built in a year. And that says to me something very hopeful. It says that if you could rebuild Ashraf and Camp Liberty and you could build Ashraf 3 here in Albania, then it won’t be long before you’re going to build Ashraf in Tehran.
Source » ncr-iran