The National Council of Resistance of Iran’s (NCRI) President Maryam Rajavi commemorated the recently executed protester and wrestler Navid Afkari on Friday, saying that he “lives on in the hearts and struggle of thousands of Resistance Units in Iran who will continue to resist and rise up for freedom and justice”.
Rajavi, speaking just before a virtual conference on Iran policy, highlighted a number of actions taken by Resistance Units inside Iran to commemorate the sporting hero, who was executed earlier this month for taking part in protests in 2018.
She advised that the actions were taking place despite security forces being on full alert, which demonstrates how the people feel about this and shows that the regime’s attempts to stamp out dissent have failed. These actions follow two nationwide uprisings for regime change in 2018 and 2019, which called for regime change.
Rajavi said: “The Iranian people’s uprisings – from December 2017 to November 2019 and January 2020 – have [dispelled] all illusions about the stability of the clerical regime. Each of those nationwide movements was considered remarkable not just because of their size or their geographic and demographic diversity, but also because they elicited rare statements from Iranian officials regarding the existence of an organized Resistance movement inside the country.”
She advised that the regime has long denied any popular support for the Resistance exists, something is shown to be false by the protesters and even the regime. Of course, logical people already knew this. Why else would the regime spend so much money and effort to discredit a movement with no support? Why execute 120,000 of them unless they were worried of the Resistance’s strength?
At the conference, where many condemned the regime for Afkari’s execution despite an international campaign to save his life, the speakers urge a firm policy on Iran, noting that reform from within the regime was impossible for the mullahs, so appeasement would not work.
British MP David Jones said: “The UK and the US and other Western democracies should align themselves with the people of Iran and Madam Rajavi for a viable Iranian-made solution [to various current problems] and hold the regime to account for their crimes, including a “domestic crackdown and export [of] terrorism”.
House of Representatives member Lori Trahan said of the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners: “It’s shameful and infuriating that to this day, no Iranian official has been held accountable for their crimes.”
