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 Colombian Senator Ingrid Betancourt delivered a powerful speech.
1. Former Colombian Senator @IBetancourtCol Calls for International Support for Iranian Resistance, Condemns Appeasement Policy #MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024 #BerlinDemo29Junehttps://t.co/nFbu4J2ahT
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 29, 2024
The full text of Senator Betancourt’s speech follows:
I think that the Iranian regime is one of those monsters, political monsters, in the verge of extinction. And I think that if we are here gathered today, it’s because we know it. We know they come to an end. And we want to say with our brain, but also with our heart, with our emotions, we want to support, we want to help, but we want also to commit to all the Iranian women and Iranian men who didn’t go to the polls yesterday in protest against the regime, those freedom fighters that are the reason why we are gathered here today.
And if we are here, it’s not only because we believe in them, but we do. It’s also because we know that their fate is our fate. That our fate is linked to what happens in Iran. Our well-being, the end of terrorism, the strikes here in Europe, in the States, wherever in the world they want to strike, we have seen it.
And finally, world peace. The assurance of world peace depends on your victory. And the victory of all the freedom fighters in Iran. We have heard a lot today about the word appeasement. And it seems to be a cursed word. But what we have not to forget is that this appeasement policy is the result of a narrative that has been pushed by infiltration networks set up by the Iranian intelligence services in order to manipulate our governments and neutralize our democracies.
And above all, to avoid any attempt we can try to do in order to prevent the Iranian dictatorship from acquiring the nuclear bomb. That is what appeasement is all about. They are buying time. And they have not only succeeded in buying time, but they have also succeeded in preventing our government from officially supporting the Iranian opposition.
And the argument that they put forward, that I hear they put forward, is that we shouldn’t, as foreigners, support any leaders in Iran because ultimately it belongs to the Iranian people to decide who they want to rule their country. And that’s true. That is absolutely true. And that’s the heart of your Ten-Point Plan.
But the fact is that today there is a consensus among the freedom and human rights activists all over the world that we need to have international support if we want change. And we want change. That’s why the regime has, Iranian regime, has deployed an aggressive strategy to disseminate false allegations against the National Council of Resistance of Iran, against the MEK, against Iranian freedom fighters, to the point that some weeks ago we French people here had the surprise, and I have to say the indignation, to read in the most important newspaper in France, Le Monde, an article that was written as if the journalist had been under dictation, under the command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
All the lies, all the calumnies that the Iranian regime has been spreading for years in the social media were summarized by Le Monde. So, the campaign is aggressive, but it shows also that we’re winning. Because it didn’t deter anyone from being here today. And it is important, I think, to try to understand why it takes so much effort to try to prevent our support to Maryam and to the MEK and to the resistance. Why?
And I think that first, it’s because if we succeed in obtaining the official support of governments all around the world for the MEK, it’s just a message as powerful as a nuclear bomb. And it comprises only two words. Game over. The game is over. The game is over because Maryam has succeeded in bringing hope to the Iranian people. And hope among leaders in a dictatorship regime is what they fear the most. Because that’s what brings them down.
Look what’s happening in Venezuela today. And also, one other reason is that the support we give to the resistance is evidence of the sheer failure of the regime. Because it means that the money they have spent, the years they have spent in their killing attempts, in their terrorist attacks, in their disinformation and slandering campaigns, in their infiltration strategies, in bribing officials and corrupting journalists, have failed.
They have failed because the resistance is as strong as ever. It is the major contender and it’s the only one that can overthrow the regime. It is the only organization in Iran that can show consistent work and an impeccable track record of human rights defense that cannot be demolished or erased. It has also, the resistance, deployed significant efforts recognized by everyone to expose the regime’s nuclear plots and tricks. And it has worked hard to bring, as Michael Mukasey reminded us when he spoke, to bring perpetrators of tortures and mass killings before international justice. So the regime has utterly failed.
The MEK Resistance Units that we saw have been spreading all over the country. They are as strong as ever and they have mobilized thousands of young people, women, men, families, and entire families, to put an end to the tyranny. The resistance has also fought against gender inequality and the misogynistic policies and I think they have been successful in doing so.
Because today, in every corner of Iran, you hear people chanting, women, resistance, freedom. And that is a reminder to the regime that the crime against Massa Amini will not remain unpunished. They have failed. They have failed because today the support, the international support, is immense.
In France, just in France, the majority of the Congress signed a petition supporting the Ten-Point Plan of Maryam Rajavi. The same happened in the States. More than 230 bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress. More than 500 cross-party members in the U.K. Parliament and numerous Nobel laureates. More than 4,000 parliamentarians all over the world. More than 125 former world leaders have committed to support the Iranian Resistance.
And this is not a coincidence. We all know that as we speak, there is no action more important in the world to preserve our democracies, to preserve our values, to preserve our right to freedom than to unite all around the world for the liberation of the Iranian people. That’s the Iranian theocracy. The dictatorship in Iran is our biggest enemy. Their fight, the fight of the Iranian people, is our fight. They are unstoppable. They will obtain freedom. And we will go all the way, hand in hand with them, until the end. Because with them, we demand a free Iran forever.
