On the brink of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session, an online international summit, entitled “Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy, Time to Hold the Iranian Regime Accountable,” was held September 18. The Summit brought together Iranians in various countries around the world from 10,000 locations. Mr. Robert Aderholt, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, joined the Summit.

Among the personalities who addressed the summit were 30 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from the House and the Senate. Personalities including:

Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Roy Blunt, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bob Menendez, and dignitaries like Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, General James Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama (2009-2010), Newt Gingrich, 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Joseph Lieberman, former U.S. Senator, as well as a delegation of U.K. lawmakers, and Ambassador Giulio Terzi, former Foreign Minister of Italy.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the keynote speaker of the summit

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI was the keynote speaker of the summit. She paid tribute to Navid Afkari, a rebellious national hero recently executed by the regime. Mrs. Rajavi said: “Faced with executions and massacres, the people of Iran urge the U.N. and the U.N. Security Council, in particular, to restore snapback sanctions stipulated in the six U.N. resolutions against the clerical regime in Iran.”

She continued,”Otherwise, Khamenei will continue to ravage the nation as his regime’s survival depends on murder and suppression. If Khamenei were to stop executions, he would lose control of the situation, and uprisings simmering in the depths of Iranian society would erupt and overthrow the mullahs’ religious fascism.”

At the summit, speakers demanded justice for over 30,000 MEK and other activists, political prisoners massacred in 1988. As a result they urged an end to the appeasement policy and requested those who ordered and carried out this great crime, who currently occupy high positions in the regime, to be brought to justice.

Robert Aderholt, member of the U.S. House of Representatives joined to the summit. In his remarks, Mr. Aderholt said, “The human rights violations we have seen in Iran since the overthrow of the Shaw in 1979 are some of the worst in the world.”

Robert Aderholt, member of the U.S. House of Representatives

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you on such an important topic. The human rights violations we have seen in Iran since the overthrow of the Shaw in 1979 are some of the worst in the world. The 1988 massacre of 5,000 political opponents of the Iranian regime is almost hard to fathom. These innocent men and women were kidnapped, killed and their bodies dumped into mass graves simply because they disagreed with the government.

As Americans, this is a reality that is even more difficult to accept. Sometimes I feel we take our freedom and liberty for granted but when you see atrocities like these in Iran and other parts of the world, it should make us all realize how blessed we are to live in the United States of America.

It is extremely important that we stand with the people of Iran and for them to know that they are not alone. We must also continue to pray for oppressed people like this around the world and to continue to support them as a government and as a nation.

Again, thank you for inviting me to speak to you on this important topic. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.