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Remarks by Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit

Iran Freedom

Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt

On June 29, 2024,  at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit hosted at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in Paris, former Belgian Prime Minister and Member of the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt delivered a compelling speech.

The full text of MEP Guy Verhofstadt’s speech follows:

Thank you very much Mrs. Rajavi for the invitation.

It’s not the first time that I have been here at this World Summit Congress on Free Iran. And thank you for putting this World Summit in the colors of blue and yellow gold, I would say. It are the colors of the European Union, as you know, the flag of the European Union. And it is the colors of another brave country that as you is fighting for its freedom, Ukraine, at the same time. So thank you for that.

And I will use this opportunity, Mrs. Rajavi, to give one clear message today. A clear message to the new leadership of the European Union. As you know, after the European elections, Thursday, last Thursday, a new leader of the European Union has been appointed. Also, a new high representative, Mrs. Kaya Kallas. And I want to use this platform, this conference, together with you, to make a real urgent appeal to her and to the new leadership of Europe, to drastically change the strategy of the European Union towards Iran and the mullahs in Iran.

The strategy of the European Union has been a failure towards Iran in the last decade. It has been a strategy of appeasement. It has been an attitude of complacency. And it has failed. Because the mullah’s regime continues, in fact, their evil activities, their criminal activities, not only towards their own people but also towards the world. And the list of their atrocities, dear friends, is long today.

There is oppression, especially of women. Why women? Because the women in Iran are the backbone of the democratic resistance in Iran. There are brutal executions, especially of political dissidents. There is nearly every day an execution of a brave Iranian man or woman.

We have seen, during the mullah’s regime, an ongoing proliferation in the nuclear field. And they are nearly ready to have a nuclear bomb. And there is, not to be forgotten, the destabilization of the whole Middle East. There is no one terrorist organization in that part of the world that is not sustained and financed by Iran today. That is the reality.

Be it Hamas, be it Hezbollah, be it the Houthis. And finally, it is the mullah’s regime that started also to deliver weapons to Russia in its brutal invasion of Ukraine. Well, such a regime that is oppressing women, that is executing daily dissidents, that is responsible for nuclear proliferation, that is destabilizing the whole Middle East, and at the same time is fueling another autocratic regime, as Russia has no legitimacy anymore. And it never got any legitimacy.

So, my appeal today to the leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union, and especially to the new leadership that has been elected, and to the new high representative, is that we need a new strategy. A new strategy that is bolder, that is more courageous, that is more effective. I would say we need, in fact, a strategy that is as bold and as courageous as the Iranian people themselves. That is what we need.

And that means, in fact, that means, in fact, dear friends, a strategy based on what I call four different pillars. The first pillar is the evidence itself. And it’s cruel that our political leaders are not capable of delivering that immediately. And that is the recognition of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. What are they waiting for?

Secondly, the second part of this strategy needs to stop, to try, as some are doing, to revive the nuclear deal. It leads to nothing, such a deal. The Iranian mullahs’ regime cannot be trusted. So, no deal on that issue.

Three, we need a new strategy, especially in the European Union, to liberate the hostages. And why? Because what is happening now is outrageous. Individual deals made by countries with the regime. And instead of doing that, a more collective approach is necessary, by launching a coherent sanction strategy towards the whole regime, increasing the sanction package, if every month hostages are not released. And it is, in fact, outrageous that today the European Union is only capable of sanctioning a few hundred, not more than that, of responsible people inside the mullahs’ regime.

And then finally, Mrs. Rajavi, the fourth pillar of such a new strategy, hopefully for the European Union and hopefully for the whole world, must be the recognition and cooperation with a democratic opposition that is seen as the only alternative, especially the NCRI, dear friends. It’s, in fact, outrageous that we are not capable of doing so, because the actual regime has no legitimacy.

You talked about 12 percent who participated in the presidential elections. I say it in another way, 88 percent didn’t participate and boycotted the elections in Iran. And that is more or less the same as the last parliamentary election, because there, if I’m not mistaken, it was only seven percent who participated. So that means 93 percent boycotted the election. How can you have any legitimacy in our world if 93 percent of your people boycott, in fact, your regime?

That’s the reality on the ground. And that means that we have to stop, we Western leaders, that the mullahs are the normal representatives of the brave Iranian people. They are not and they will never be the representatives of the Iranian people.

So, Mrs. Rajavi, it’s time to start for the Western leaders, to engage with you, to engage with the NCRI, to engage with all democratic forces in Iran, and to prepare for the future. Because a future, there is for Iran, but it will be a future without the Shah, without the mullah.

Thank you very much, I’m going to go.

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