Giulio Terzi, Foreign Minister of Italy (2011-2013) addressed an online global conference on the conviction of Iran’s diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Assadi by a Belgian court for attempting to bomb the 2018 Free Iran gathering in Paris.

On February 4, 2021, simultaneous with the court ruling against the Iranian regime’s diplomat-terrorist, Assadollah Assadi, and his accomplices in Antwerp, Belgium, a global online conference was held, where Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and dozens of prominent figures from various European countries, the United States and Canada, joined thousands of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) members based in Ashraf-3 (Albania) as well as the supporters of the Iranian Resistance worldwide.

The Belgian court rejected Assadollah Assadi’s claim of diplomatic immunity and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The three intelligence agents, Nasimeh Naami, Mehrdad Arefani, and Amir Saadouni, were sentenced to 18, 17, and 15 years in prison, respectively. Their Belgian citizenships was also revoked.

Giulio Terzi, Foreign Minister of Italy (2011-2013)

Thank you very much. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance Iran. Today, for all the friends of the resistance and all the true friends of the Iranian people, is a moment of great joy. It’s a great joy because justice has been rendered. So rare but so real, justice is rendered today.

This is a satisfaction and moment when we have to believe also that justice rendered so rarely must be rendered again for other extremely important instances, which are the crimes committed by the heinous regime of the mullahs. Justice must be rendered for the 1988 massacre, for the individual killings of people, dignitaries, belonging to the resistance, for political refugees in Europe. And today, as you said Madame Rajavi, it is the conviction of the regime. It is the day.

Today is the day. It’s the day when the entire world, especially those who still appease the mullahs’ regime, must become aware that the mask is finally, that the Iranian regime is certified, with the evidence given and decided by a very important court in Antwerp, the Iranian regime is a terrorist state.  

The Asadi and his accomplices’ trial has already gone a long way to work publicly, revealing how the terrorist plot was undertaken with the full knowledge and the blessing of the Iranian authorities. The judges have established that Asadi acted on behalf of the State of Iran. There were reports that the regime’s blessing came specifically from both the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the President Hassan Rouhani.

This underscores the fundamental unity between the so called hardline and so-called reform factions that share power within the regime. It is furthermore with the knowledge of Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that Iran has been engaged and is engaging in acts of terrorism. In fact, the regime and the particular Foreign Minister Zarif are criminally using the kidnapping of foreign or US citizens. They are using innocent people in order to seek prisoner exchanges with Asadi.  

As demonstrated by the fact that the execution of Professor Djalali was altered after intense contact between foreign ministers of Sweden, Belgium, Italy, and Mr. Zarif. The same execution was announced and then suspended according to a meticulously conceived script made public in order to influence the trial in Belgium. As resulted in Asadi’s case, it is now the time to strongly condemn and out the regime’s use of diplomatic cover to carry out terrorist attacks and the necessary practical warnings should be given to Tehran.  

First and foremost, the closure of all its embassies and the expulsion of its ambassador and diplomats every time there is evidence of terrorist activity or support that is detected by the European state intelligences or police with no more hesitation. European leaders must recognize in dealing with Iran, that is a regime which is the number one in the world as a state sponsor of terrorism, regime which fuels wars by proxies in the entire Middle East, which support murderous corrupt dictators in their grasp of power, which by contributing to the release, in the trade of every source of international outflows of criminal organizations and individuals.

European-Iranian relations must be made contingent upon the regime, taking concrete steps to dismantle its terrorist infrastructure and this malign activity especially on Western soil. In this way, there is a substantial mounting pressure in the European public opinion and among EU institutions in favor of a much more assertive response to terrorist planned attacks, such as the one organized in villepinte.

Europe’s lack of proper action has emboldened the Iranian authorities, and it has involved in them in the pursuit of their malign activities, including terrorism in Europe, convincing them that they have impunity, and that whatever they do in Europe even more than being a peaceful rally, which could lead to an arrest and perhaps 1000s of deaths, there will be no consequences. Europe as its own share of views and responsibility about the current situation.

Now it is the time today is the day for a new approach to tackle the terror to tackle the terror regime. And today’s Antwerp verdict represents the watershed that nails down is the responsibility to these responsibilities and entire regime that slaughters its own people, and that must no longer remain and banished veins of national community and the fact we must be overthrown by the uprising of the Iranian people and the action of the National Council of resistance of Iran and the support of all his friends around the world. Thank you so much.