Senator Joseph Lieberman, Former Member of the Senate; U.S. Vice-Presidential Nominee in 2000 addressed the first day of the Free Iran World Summit on July 1, 2023.
Senator Joseph Lieberman: Resistance Fighters in Tehran Are Most Immediate Threat to Regime’s Survival
The full text of Senator Joseph Lieberman’s remarks, is as follows:
Well, thanks to the people in the back of the room. Three and a half hours and your energy and enthusiasm have not diminished. God bless you.
Well, hasn’t this been an extraordinarily strong, powerful, impressive, and inspiring 2023 Free Iran World Summit?
Yes, it has. So we know that the tyrants in Tehran thought they could stop, and scare us from meeting here this year. They thought they could deny the permit for the rally in Paris. But they were wrong. Here we are, a gathering of an extraordinary gathering of world leaders, hundreds, and leaders of the NCRI in this room in the presence of our leader, Madam Rajavi.
Tens of thousands are at the rally in Paris and millions around the world are watching us. Most importantly, the freedom fighters, the Resistance in Iran. This is about you. We are saying to you, we are with you until this fight is won and it will be won.
There is no doubt, as others have said, and I’ll say it briefly, that the tide of history is moving in Iran toward freedom, toward the Resistance, toward the NCRI, MEK, and against the tyranny of the mullahs in Tehran. The corrupt, self-serving, extreme, repressive, aggressive, terrorist-supporting tyranny in Tehran.
You in the NCRI, MEK, and the Resistance fighters in Tehran frighten them, believe me, more than any government in the world, including powerful governments like my own and European. Why? Because you represent the people of Iran and are the most immediate threat to the survival of this regime. That is why they spend so much money attacking the NCRI, MEK. Money that would be much better spent to improve the quality of life of the people in Iran.
That’s why they worked so hard to disrupt the peaceful rally in Paris. That’s why they have so threatened the government of Albania, which has been so admirably welcoming to the NCRI, and MEK in fulfillment of the noble national Albanian value of best doers of good deeds, welcoming of those who need refuge.
I want to say that the people of America, I say this to Prime Minister Rama and the people of Albania. The people of America are deeply appreciative that you have given a home and refuge in Ashraf 3 to the NCRI, MEK. We know that there was an unfortunate incident last week, but we appeal to you to meet together, with the government of Albania, the leaders of the NCRI, and MEK, to find common ground. And when you do, you will have the sense of gratitude from all the free peoples of the world in the European Union that I hope you will join soon, and in the United States of America.
I’ve been asked to speak about a few subjects that have been really pretty well covered today. So I’m going to do it as briefly as I can. And for a former senator who used to have the right to filibuster without end, that’s asking a lot, but I’m going to try to do it.
First is the false narrative of the government in Tehran that there is no alternative to the government, and therefore the powers of the world must accept the tyrants as permanent and negotiate with them. I said yesterday at this meeting, and I will say again today, that is exactly what Adolf Hitler argued in the 1930s. And unfortunately, Neville Chamberlain fell for that argument, went to Munich, signed an agreement, which was not even worth the paper it was on, and what was the result? World War II.
The reality is that history speaks to the leaders of our country and the leaders of Europe, and they must listen to that history. Going back to a table to talk to the regime in Iran today, which apparently has been happening in Oman, to me is the equivalent of trying to negotiate with a poisonous snake. It doesn’t end well and won’t end well for us.
Is there an alternative to the regime in Iran? Of course, there is. It is the overwhelming majority of the people of Iran who want to be free again and live lives equal to those in the rest of the civilized world. And is there an organization ready to lead the transition to power by the people of Iran? Of course, there is. It’s the NCRI and MEK. There are other opposition organizations to the regime. But I ask you, is there any one of them or gathering of any group of them that could bring together the world leaders who are in this room, the leaders of the parliaments who are just up here? Is there any other organization that has and has had… No, right, for years the Resistance fighters were on the ground in Iran.
The NCRI and MEK have earned the right through the leadership of Massoud Rajavi to Maryam Rajavi, decades of fighting against the Shah, against the Ayatollahs to lead the transition to freedom. They have earned it, but I will tell you this, they are ready for it. We have talked a lot today, as we should always, about the Ten-Point Plan of Mr. Rajavi. It’s a great plan, a plan for freedom, equality, opportunity for the people of Iran. It’s one that every civilized democratic nation in the world should enthusiastically support.
But the NCRI and Mrs. Rajavi have something else. They have a transition plan. It is out there for everybody to see. And it is a selfless plan that shows that this organization is not about seizing power. It is about making sure that the people of Iran seize power when this regime falls. It’s a plan that begins with a transition to early elections, to have a constituent assembly from the people in Iran that will then adopt the constitution, hopefully very much like the Ten-Point Plan, and will elect leaders of the country.
I’ve been over this plan, I’ve been over it with Mrs. Rajavi. I will tell you, in my opinion, in the history of uprisings, and rebellions, for freedom in the world against dictatorships, there has never been a group of revolutionaries that are prepared to avoid chaos and provide a smooth and peaceful transition to freedom than this group, NCRI, MEK, and the people of Iran. So, there is an alternative.
The second subject is about the West. You’ve heard me speak, and I would say finally that what is being talked about apparently in Oman, although we don’t know, is disastrous, it’s catastrophic. It’s shocking that the U.S., I speak about my country, would go back to this after the various times we have made agreements with the tyrants in Tehran, and they have broken them. But what is being talked about is shocking. Billions more to the tyrants that they will use to support terrorism. Not for their people. An acceptance of the 60% uranium enrichment that they have reached. That’s shocking.
Ten years ago, the community of world nations said that if Iran enriched uranium to 1%, it would be a violation of international law and bring us down on them. So, I appeal to all of us from around the world who are here, including the delegation from parliaments, and I know that we and the American delegation, bipartisan, will do so. We must go home from here, in our case back to Washington, and insist that our leaders leave the table in Oman, wave goodbye to the representatives of the tyrants of Tehran, enforce the sanctions that exist, adopt more sanctions, and finally arouse in the tyrants of Tehran the one emotion that will affect them, which is fear. And they have no fear today.
Now a final word about a very different subject, faith. The Prime Minister of Slovenia talked about this earlier. No movement can succeed without a great leader. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is a great leader. She is principled, persistent, she has a clear vision of the future. She is an extraordinary planner, as I have said, and a leader of a movement. She’s inspiring. But I want to say something else that I think is globally significant and really constructive. Like the leaders of the American Revolution, she is a woman of faith. She is a devout Muslim. She has supported freedom of religion in the new Iran, but that doesn’t mean freedom from religion. In fact, I would say like the heroes of the American Revolution, her faith in God, and her embrace of the values of Islam, give her the strength to go forward as she has and guide her in all the principles that she fights for. Some of the leaders of the American Revolution had a slogan that they almost adopted as our national motto, which is, rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. And it was more than a slogan, as Mrs. Rajavi understands.
It was based on the reality that if you believe in God, the creator, then you believe that every individual is created in God’s image. And as those who wrote the American Declaration of Independence said, there is the self-evident truth that every person is created equally by our creator and endowed with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
So Mrs. Rajavi is a source of enormous light for this entire movement. And in some sense, all of us take our candles, our lights of freedom, and light them from here throughout the world, and most importantly, in a Resistance in Iran.
The regime may think that they can snuff out those lights because they thought they could stop us from meeting here in Paris this weekend. But they don’t realize that the lights of freedom are eternal and always win because the lights of freedom, for the reasons I’ve just stated, come from God.
So, I have no doubt about how this is going to end. It’s going to end in a free Iran. And I know it will not be easy, but I know we are ready to do anything we have to do and will do to secure that result.
And so, I end by saying to you, and I appeal to you in this room, to the people at the rally, to people around the world, and most importantly, those who are watching and listening in Iran.
Are we ready to fight for freedom in Iran until we win? Yes! Hazer! Hazer! Hazer! Hazer! (ready in Persia) God bless you.
