On June 30, 2024, at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit – Day 2 hosted at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in Paris, former UK Member of Parliament Steve McCabe delivered a powerful speech in support of the Iranian people and their democratic opposition, the NCRI.
1. Steve McCabe Calls for Firm Iran Policy, Backs Democratic Change and Maryam Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan #MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024 https://t.co/eGydVlcuuX
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 30, 2024
The full text of former UK MP Steve McCabe’s speech follows:
Well, thank you. Madame Rajavi, representatives of free parliaments and institutions around the world. Friends, we are slightly thinner with the UK delegation this time, but that may be because you’re aware of a certain event that’s happening back home.
Nonetheless, I’m delighted that we just heard from His Lordship, who also has his Good Lady wife with him, and my friend, Sir Alan Meale, who many of you will know for his stellar work on Iran in the Council of Europe. I’m proud to stand with the Iranian people and their democratic opposition, the NCRI. Cross-party colleagues in the British Committee for Iran Freedom and both Houses of the UK Parliament have long argued for an Iran policy based on firmness and accountability.
Some accuse us of being pro-war and wanting to bomb Iran. That’s not true. It’s the same lies Madame Rajavi and NCRI have endured for decades. Whereas advocates of rapprochement and appeasement deliberately overlook the fact that a war is already being waged in Iran, waged by the regime against its own people, denying them their basic human rights and freedoms, and in so many cases, the right to life through state murders and executions.
As we look at the situation today, we see the true face of this regime, its desire to support conflict escalation in the region, killing and mayhem to eliminate democratic opposition, sham trials in absentia, and terrorist attacks abroad, including the failed bombing of the Free Iran Summit in 2018 which many of you here will have attended and were lucky to survive.
And of course, it’s expanding the nuclear program. The sham elections designed to replace one mass murderer like Raisi with another, tell us all we need to know about this regime. The Iranian people saw through it and rightly boycotted the farce, using the opportunity to spread the message, “It’s time for revolution, not sham elections.”
It’s time for the Iranian people to decide their country’s future. I am delighted to support and promote the ten-point democratic program presented by Madame Rajavi, which begins with the absolute rejection of Velayat-e-Faghih, and affirmation of the people’s sovereignty in a Republic, founded on universal suffrage and pluralism. What better to allow the Iranian people to decide Iran’s future than ending the religious dictatorship and securing free and fair elections?
— Steve McCabe (@steve_mccabe) June 29, 2024
I applaud Madame Rajavi and the NCRI, PMOI members in Ashraf 3, and all Iranians, including the brave Resistant Units inside Iran, for their efforts and sacrifices to help the Iranian people, realize their democratic ambitions.
You’re making democratic change possible. You deserve our support and assistance. I will stand with you until Iran is free. I ask the international community, especially the UK government and the one we anticipate coming, to heed this slogan, “Women, Resistance, Freedom.”
Recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist the mullahs, and proscribe the IRGC.
Let’s see a free Iran. Iran will be free.
