On June 29, 2024, at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit hosted at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in Paris, former Vice President Mike Pence delivered an impassioned speech.
2. Pence began by paying tribute to the late Senator Joe Lieberman, a champion of freedom and a strong ally to the Iranian people. #MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024 #BerlinDemo29June https://t.co/KIe1IrypdM
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 29, 2024
Excerpts of Vice President Pence’s speech are as follows:
Thank you.
Prime Ministers, Presidents, military leaders, dignitaries, members of legislatures from around the world, and parliamentarians.
I’m former Vice President Mike Pence, and it is my great honor to be here at the Free Iran World Summit 2024. President-elect, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Maryam Rajavi, my friend Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, distinguished leaders from my country and all across the world.
Thank you for standing for a free Iran. It is an honor to be with you all. As we gather today, though, there is one for freedom who is not with us, a man who served with distinction for nearly a quarter century in the United States Senate. He’s been mentioned from this podium already once and honored today. But he was a man who never hesitated to stand for freedom, to stand for America’s alliances around the world. He never hesitated to stand with the people of Iran. When the day comes when Iran is once again free. We will remember and be grateful for the life and work of Senator Joe Lieberman.
It’s an honor to be with all of you here in Paris, but to our friends gathered in Berlin and around the world, especially those risking their lives watching in secret in Iran. I urge you from the bottom of my heart, keep working, keep fighting, never stop believing in a free Iran, and never doubt that the freedom-loving American people are with you and support your dream of a secular democratic Iranian Republic.
This is now my second time speaking to this gathering. When people ask why I chose to be here, the answer is simple. I want the world to know that because of all of you, the winds of change are blowing in Iran stronger than ever before. We are at a momentous time in the wake of momentous events.
I rejoiced in the death of no man, but the death of President Ebrahim Raïsi. The future is brighter and the world is safer now that that evil man has passed into history. I scarcely need to tell anyone here are those looking on. Raïsi was a mass murderer. His appointment as President in 2021 is widely understood to be a sign of the regime’s growing frustration at its inability to quell the dissent within its borders. His number one job was to shut down the resistance. Because of all of you, Raïsi died of failure because the resistance is stronger than ever before.
And we gather here just one day after elections were held in Iran, presumably to choose a new President. But it should come as no surprise, as media around the world are reporting, that the election yesterday saw the lowest turnout in the history of Iran since the revolution. The people of Iran know that the election was a shame. They know that they will never have a real choice under the current regime, and they aren’t willing to participate in a charade that is only intended to legitimize the regime in the eyes of the outside world.
This much we know for certain. Whoever is the new President of Iran, will inherit a regime that is weaker, less stable, and more prone to collapse than at any point in history. But we know this, the regime will not go quietly into the night of its own accord. That’s why only a tested, organized, and proven resistance can bring about lasting change. A movement that can inspire the people to take action, has a history of standing up to the regime, not compromising. A movement that’s willing to sacrifice, pay the price that’s needed for freedom. The good news is that movement exists. That movement is the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Honored to speak at the #FreeIran2024 World Summit. Told the Iranian resistance, change is coming because of all of you. The winds of change are blowing in Iran, stronger than ever before. The enduring hope for a free Iran can never be extinguished and the people of Iran will… pic.twitter.com/AUbxor2bk3
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 29, 2024
The truth is, the mullets in Tehran have no greater fear than the NCRI. That’s why they put Mrs. Rajavi and a hundred of the leaders of this movement on phoning trials, in absentia, hoping to scare the younger generation of heroes, many of whose faces we just saw on the walls of this gathering.
But the persecution and murder of members of the Resistance Units across Iran have strongly strengthened this movement in its numbers, its capabilities, its resolve, and its inspiration in the free world. Just as Raïsi failed to exterminate the MEK during the 1988 massacre, Iran will again fail to defeat the Resistance Units in Iran today.
As a former elected leader, as an American citizen, and as a Christian who believes that all people are created in the image of God, the Iranian people have always had a special place in my heart. The American cause, the cause of all democracies, is freedom. And in this cause, we will never be silent. The enduring hope for a free Iran can never be extinguished. As Ronald Reagan said, there is no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.
It is clear to me today than it has ever been before in my 20 years of public service that the people of Iran will someday be free. I’m proud of our record of support for the people of Iran in their quest for freedom.
Under the Trump-Pence administration, we did not turn a deaf ear to the pleas of the Iranian people. We did not remain silent in the face of the Iranian regime’s countless atrocities. We proudly stood with the freedom-loving people of Iran. We canceled the Iran nuclear deal that had flooded the regime’s coffers with tens of billions of dollars and pallets full of cash used to repress its own people and support deadly terrorist attacks across the world.
We imposed crippling new sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. We launched a campaign of maximum pressure, punishing the regime for its belligerent behavior and assault of its own citizens. We vigorously enforced those sanctions to bring Iran’s oil exports to near zero and deny the regime its principal source of revenue. We made it abundantly clear that the United States will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. We took all these steps, and we did not hesitate when the time came to stop the world’s leading terrorists, and Qassem Soleimani is gone.
On the day we left office, the Iranian regime was more isolated than ever before. But now, a current American administration has been unraveling much of the progress that we made in marginalizing that tyrannical regime in Tehran. Working overtime to restore the Iran nuclear deal, putting Tehran back on a fast track for obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In fact, the Biden administration even admitted that under a restored nuclear deal, Iran would be capable of amassing enough nuclear fuel for a bomb in less than one year, even faster than would have been allowed under the previous arrangement. I say with a heavy heart, these actions by the current American administration are naive and dangerous.
But as the American presidential election unfolds before a watching world, our allies and enemies should know this, whatever the condition of our current American leadership, the American people are strong. The American military is the strongest military in the history of the world, and any nation that wishes us or our allies ill must know, as President Kennedy said, that the American people always stand ready to pay any price, meet any hardship, bear any burden, and support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
I promise you. In recent months, the world has seen even more clearly the head of the snake, terrorism lies in Tehran. Tehran has supplied drones to Russia to support its war of aggression against Ukraine. It enabled Houthis to disrupt international shipping. It has funded and supported Hamas terrorists who engaged in unspeakable acts of violence on October the seventh.
The Iranian regime has never been weaker than it is today. Four out of five Iranians now live below the poverty line. Corruption is at an all-time high. The Iranian people are fed up. They’re ready for change. They’re more united than ever before. Hope is a flame in the heart of freedom-loving men and women. I believe that flame is burning brighter among your countrymen than ever before. Thanks to the work of all of you. We stand unequivocally on the side of freedom and the Iranian people and their Resistance Units.
One of the biggest lies of the ruling regime sold to the wider world is that there is no alternative to the status quo, which you all know. There is an alternative. Well-organized, fully prepared, perfectly qualified and popularly supported alternative called the National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose main component is called the MEK. Please join me in thanking Maryam Rajavi for your outstanding leadership, your vision, and your personal courage. You are an inspiration to the world.
My wife and I have been to Ashraf 3 in Albania. I’ve spoken with the survivors who sacrificed for freedom. I’ve looked through the pages of the Book of the Fallen. I know the MEK is ready to lead. I want the wider world to understand that MEK and the NCRI share the same values that Western nations hold dear.
Mrs. Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for the future of Iran will extend political, social, and economic equality to women. It will allow all citizens to prosper and thrive in a free market economy. The Ten-Point Plan will ensure the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, and guarantee the right of every Iranian to live, to work, to worship, according to the dictates of their conscience in freedom.
We gather here and in Berlin and in Albania and watching around the world because we all know that Iran can be a great nation once again. We know the rich history of Iran. It stretches back into time immemorial. It’s the story of a people who made countless contributions to art, music, literature, science, and commerce. And we know that story is far from over.
And now, as a new day begins to dawn in Iran, people are daring to dream a different dream, a future in which human rights are respected, the rule of law is cherished, and the human spirit is set free from the bonds of tyranny. We stand with the proud people of Iran because it is right.
Because the regime in Tehran threatens the peace and security of the world, and no oppressive regime can last forever. I believe just as the Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of its own sins, so too will be the fate of the oppressors. In Iran. The day will come when the unelected Ayatollahs release their iron-fisted grip on Iran and their people, and a new glorious day will dawn. A bright future will begin ushering in an era of peace, prosperity, stability, and a spirit of freedom for the good people of your country.
In my faith tradition, there’s a proverb that reads, “Now the Lord is spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there’s freedom.” I want to assure you that I and millions of Americans will continue to pray that that day will come soon for the people of Iran. While it’s an honor to be with you again in Paris, I look forward to the day that we will gather in a free, open, democratic Iran.
Thank you. God bless you. God bless the people of Iran and the United States of America.
