![Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senator (1989-2013)](https://iranfreedom.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Joe-Lieberman-Former-U.S.-Senator.jpg)
Excerpts of speech of Joe Lieberman, U.S. Senator (1989-2013) and nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2000 election, at the Free Iran 2022 is as follows:
Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful greeting. It is so good to be back in Ashraf 3. I feel at home here, and I really do. But you raise my spirits and enable me and all the others from outside of Ashraf 3 and Iran to do what my friend John McCain always said, there is no greater satisfaction in life than serving a cause larger than ourselves.
And that is the cause you are serving. And we are proud to support with you tonight freedom, freedom, freedom for the people of Iran. Mrs. Rajavi was again an inspiration to hear you speak. And I was thinking to myself, the regime in Tehran criticizes you and the NCRI MEK constantly. And they threaten violence against meetings of your and our organization. Do you know why they do that? They’re afraid of you.
They’re afraid of you because they know that your support among the Iranian people is rising and theirs is falling toward collapse. And that means freedom for Iran. No movement can succeed without strong followers. And this movement for freedom in Iran has a strong and growing following. But no movement for trans formation for a political revolution can’t succeed without a great leader.
And then, Maryam Rajavi, you have a great leader, a woman of gifted talents, of intelligence, of principle, of passion. I was thinking of how I could compare her with others who have been leaders in our time. And this may seem a little strange.
Mrs. Rajavi, I would say you’re a combination of Margaret Thatcher and Mother Teresa, meaning strength, compassion, and a guiding principle of light. I want to, not surprisingly, agree with what Mrs. Rajavi said in her remarks.
And I do this to back up what I said a moment ago. The regime in Tehran fights the NCRI/MEK because they’re afraid of you. If they weren’t afraid of you, if your strength was not growing, they would ignore you. But they know it’s not. And that is because they, more than anyone else, knows that they are on that slippery slope, Mrs. Rajavi, talked about. They are on the road to collapse where they belong.
Martin Luther King famously said that the moral arc of the universe bends slowly, but it always bends toward justice. So tonight, I would paraphrase him and say the political arc of the universe sometimes bends slowly, but it always bends toward freedom.
And that is what we are about, all of us who are privileged to be here to support you. I’m here as an American. And I’m here as an American not to support the Iranian resistance, because you are the enemies of our enemy, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I’m here to support the resistance because you represent the same values that animated and motivated our own resistance in the 18th century that led to the freedom of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, and our constitution.
The regime in Iran represents everything that is opposite. It is guilty of high crimes of tyranny, violence, and corruption against its own people. It’s guilty of aggression against its neighbors and supporting terrorists who have killed hundreds, thousands of people throughout the world. Its own people courageously challenged the regime survival.
Every day, its neighbors in the Arab world and Israel are joining together for the first time to better protect themselves from the regime in Tehran. And its influence in Washington and other great capitals of the civilized democracies of the world is finally disappearing. There is only one acceptable solution to the problems created by the terrorist government in Tehran. It must be removed, and soon will be by its own people. Led by the NCRI/MEK resistance and its supporters throughout the region and the world.
You know the story of what’s happened inside the country. The economy is in shambles, the people’s freedom has been trampled on. And the resistance shows more and more courage and capability every day in the region. As I’ve said, the Arab states and Israel have come together in a powerful coalition alliance to stop Tehran and in the world, the regime in Tehran is increasingly isolated. And just think of the regime in Tehran.
Think of the great history of the Persian people, that at this moment all they could do to try to raise themselves up a bit was to turn to other Kleptocrats autocrats and tyrants throughout the world. So, it’s time. Even the JCPOA really is in its final days. The truth is, it is dead. And all that remains is for the Biden administration to bury it, to acknowledge its death, leave the negotiations, force Iran to deal with that reality and be strong with the countries, and most of all, support the movement for freedom in Iran. Now, our best allies, I speak of America, I speak of the civilized democracy of the world.
Our best allies against the Islamic Republic of Iran are the people of Iran. And that is where your leadership comes in. I had somebody say to me once, it was the leader of one of the intelligence agencies in the Middle East speaking about Iran’s nuclear program, that the only time the mullahs in Tehran will seriously negotiate an end of their nuclear program, is the day that they think they must do it to save their regime.
They don’t feel that way yet, although they should. And it remains for us to put that pressure on them in every way, and nothing will move them more than an uprising of the people. The reality is, as we call for a revolution in Iran, the revolution has already begun. The revolution has begun with the thousands of fighters of the resistance of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, of the MEK in Iran.
And it will not be stopped until this regime is dead and gone. Now, in the rest of the world outside of the Middle East, this is the moment for all of us who believe in freedom to stand firm and not be tricked by the regime, are bullied by it into doing things that are inconsistent with our values and our interests.
The deal with the devil that Belgium seems to want to make for this alleged exchange of prisoners which you have fought so successfully, is an example of what should not be done that will only encourage the regime in Tehran to carry out more acts of terrorism such as the one they planned against.
The meeting organized by this group. Fight on in court, dear friends, and let that be an example to every other country in the world. There is no peace by trying to tame the beast that controls the government in Iran. I want to say to you, as a former United States senator, what a thrill it was not only to hear the senators who spoke to you, but to look up on that board of pictures and to know eleven senators.
What I was really encouraged by is that the bipartisanship that existed in the American government in our Iran policy, which was broken in 2015 and the fight over JCPOA is returning again. You can see it in that group. You can see it in the statements made from senators from both parties. You can see it in the resolutions that have been passed in Congress.
And you can see it most recently in the legislation introduced by Democratic Senator Menendez and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. And that can and must continue. Ladies and gentlemen. It’s time for the people of Iran to rise up together to liberate themselves. It’s time for the United States and every democratic nation in the world to help them. It’s time for us to recognize that within this movement NCRI/MEK, there are leaders who are ready to preside over the coming of freedom to Iran. To give the people a choice of their leaders, not to impose leaders from the top. And that, may I say, begins with your own and our own Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.
We will do everything we can together. And I am confident sooner than most people think that we are in the final days of the regime in Iran. The Kleptocratic autocratic repressive theocratic anti freedom regime. I know there are those who will say that I am either a naive dreamer or fool or naive.
But think of history. They said that about the Americans who fought England in our struggle for freedom. They said it about the British, and the British were the only country remaining to be willing to resist the movement of Nazism across Germany.
But in each of every one of those circumstances, yes. After occasional setbacks, those leaders of the resistance triumphed, and so did freedom. So, I am not a naive dreamer. I am a political realist. And it is from that realism that I know that if we together work and will it, it is no dream. I’ve mentioned the Brits.
Winston Churchill said famously during the Second World War, and somebody was good enough to give this to me on an engraved on a piece of metal that I keep on my desk. He said never, never, never quit.
And we all say tonight, we will never, never quit until freedom comes to the people of Iran. And believe me, with your leadership and our help and God’s help, that day is coming soon.
So, I say, as I always like to say now, my favorite it word in Persian. And it was already said by this great crowd. Hazer, Hazer, Hazer! We are ready!