Geir Haarde, Prime Minister of Iceland (2006-2009), addressed the first day of the Free Iran World Summit on July 1, 2023.

Geir Haarde: Stop Appeasing Criminal Leadership in Tehran

The full text of Former Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde’s remarks, is as follows:

Dear Madam Rajavi, dear friends, there have been many important speeches here today and many great ideas that we have listened to. Let me just say that for years Western leaders have pursued a highly mistaken policy towards Iran ignoring the crucial role of the Iranian people’s Resistance movement against the ruling regime.

Regrettably, the current policy towards the Iranian regime can only be described as a policy of appeasement and Speaker Bercow told us all about in his eloquent remarks what appeasement is all about. This policy has emboldened the regime to increase its human rights violations, the use of hostage-taking, and support for global terrorism.

Now I was one of the former Prime Ministers who signed the letter that many people have referred to urging world leaders to stop this policy. Stop appeasing the criminal leadership in Tehran. Stop giving them new lifelines all the time and help the people of Iran make the regime change come from within which is what needs to happen.

And now that the people of Iran are taking to the streets to call for regime change, a misconstrued policy may become even more unethical and dangerous. Western policymakers have failed to recognize all the tools at their disposal to deal firmly with the religious dictatorship in Iran. They have ignored a key missing element in any successful Iran policy which is the important role that the Resistance movement carries out to support freedom and democracy.

By ignoring this they have indeed fallen into the regime’s trap which seeks to keep the movement hidden and out of sight from the world community. And as many speakers have said here today, the right policy towards Iran must consider the Iranian people themselves and their Resistance movement. The regime fears this movement because it knows it has the potential to topple the regime and establish democracy in Iran through an internal regime change.

Now I have had the opportunity to follow the Resistance movement here, the NCRI, its leaders, and many other friends here for quite a few years now and I am well aware of their peaceful and democratic roadmap, particularly the Ten-Point Plan. And this plan offers a blueprint for a free and democratic Iran founded on universal human rights and the values of gender equality and religious tolerance, values that we all endorse. And most importantly this plan envisages a nuclear-free Iran.

So, it’s time for the West to abandon its policy of appeasement towards the Iranian regime and adopt a policy that supports the Iranian people and their legitimate aspirations for democracy and freedom. And this policy involves openly supporting the NCRI and its leader as well as Madam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan.

And as we all know and as many people have said, there is no alternative. That’s the simple truth. And those who do not understand that, who fail to understand that, will position themselves on the wrong side of history and not become true champions of human rights and democracy worldwide. Thank you.