Gilbert Mitterrand, son of the late French President Francois Mitterand, President of Fondation Danielle Mitterrand (France‑libertés) joined the Online Free Iran Global Summit. In his remarks, Mr. Mitterrand stressed that the mullahs fear another popular uprising that will sweep them away.

The Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) managed to hold this year’s annual gathering virtually on July 17. Given the novel coronavirus pandemic and its restriction, many dignitaries commended the NCRI’s ability and determination for connecting 30,000 locations to Ashraf-3, home to members of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Here is the speech of Mr. Mitterrand:

The mullahs’ regime in Iran is a dictatorship that rules by terror and denial of the value of human life. It massacres, as was the case in 1988, but it represses, imprisons, tortures, and also executes on a daily basis.

It kills in the streets, like last November, where 1,500 demonstrators were summarily shot; it kills in prisons where death row is full of political prisoners sentenced to death after torture and forced confessions, on the mullahs’ charge of “war against God”.

At the dawn of July 14, the Iranian regime executed two Kurdish political prisoners in Orumiyeh prison. They had been on death row for 7 years. Last Wednesday, the death penalty for three demonstrators of the uprising last November; and on July 8, hanging of a young prisoner for drinking alcohol.

The Iranians have shown overwhelmingly in recent years their rejection of this despotic theocracy. The mullahs rule by terror because fear is their camp, fearing another popular uprising that will sweep them away.

Asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights every time to take action against the religious regime in Iran is no longer enough.

Gilbert Mitterrand

This huge meeting today proposes an alternative for universal values, including the abolition of the death penalty, free elections, equality for women, religions, and ethnicities, separation of religion and state, and a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence and a non-nuclear Iran.

That’s why we support Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan for the free Iran of tomorrow.