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 Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny addressed the attendees.
1. Former Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny Calls for Increased Action to Support Iranian People's Struggle for Freedom and Democracy #MaryamRajavi4FreeIran #FreeIran2024 #BerlinDemo29June https://t.co/MYeQAPZcSB
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 29, 2024
Excerpts of the speech of former Prime Minister Kenny follows:
You’ve had a lot of speeches today and a lot of comments. I want to say that you are competing with a lot of other difficulties for attention globally. The planet’s in trouble. Humanity itself is in danger. 26 million at the moment in the Sudan with the crisis of hunger. If at Russia, Russia and Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah, Lebanon, and Syria with a million gone into Lebanon, 3 million in the Jordan camps, 3.5 million in the camps in Turkey, Rohingyas, Uyghurs and so many others, all competing for attention from global leaders.
We are very privileged to be here today with you, Maryam, for what you’re doing in respect of Iran and the people of Iran. Our problem is not with the people, it’s with the theocracy. The people of Iran are welcoming, peace-loving people, and yet what’s seen on Western television is never anything other than crowds of people supporting a theocratic dictator.
America has prescribed that the difficulty internationally now is between autocracy and democracy. Well, nobody should underestimate the importance of this conference. And I’ll tell you why. The issue is too critical. Iran is too big to ignore, too strategic to neglect, and too unpredictable to forget. Realism is critical in politics. If you go back to your homes and your constituencies and your countries after this and do nothing, and you come back next year, it hasn’t been a success.
This regime has been around since the late, since the over 40, 50 years, since the 70s, and it’s withstood all of those eight years of war with Iraq, the decades of sanctions, the Green Movement of 2009, the Girls of Revolution Street in Tehran in 2017.
It stood while the Coral Revolution swept through the former Soviet Union, through Eastern Asia, and the Middle East. And they will not give up easily. I would say that people in that theocracy this evening have taken note of what’s been said here in Paris and Berlin and Albania and will be sending out messages to their ambassadors where embassies still exist with lovely booklets explaining that Iran is a peace-loving country and that the situations that we heard about today from John Bercow and others do not happen and are not happening and are not allowed to happen.
And that’s the contradiction that you face here. So the end will come, believe me. You might not believe that, but when it comes, it will come certainly and quickly. I know that from our country, as these people here know, we were colonized by Britain for 700 years and had revolution after revolution after revolution, a long, bloody wait to become an independent republic, a democratic republic in the south of Ireland.
And that caused a civil war, and that lasted for so many years afterward. In the late ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the Irish government and the government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland had to deal with terrorism for 30 years, a pseudo-terrorist war waged in Britain, in Northern Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland, and indeed on the continent. And people said this cannot go on. And it was democratic governments. And it only ended after so many meetings held at night in so many places, with so many back channels and different governments of the British government and the Irish government and Northern Ireland representatives, representatives of all the churches. And eventually, eventually, the reason was had and a fragile peace was put in place in 1998, which still stands.
During the course of that terrorist activity, 3,000 people were butchered, maimed, blown up, disappeared, and horror, horror every night of the week with the uncertainty that was happening there.
So I think, Maryam, you’ve done a great job here, but this needs to be revved up because the regime is not going to give up. They are going to resist pressure as they have done for the last 50 years. And the tools for sorting this out are available. The message to the people in Iran is that it takes courage and resilience, as Daniela has pointed out, it takes courage and resilience to decide that tomorrow you’re going to discard the hijab and walk down the street when you risk, if you’re a woman, being hauled into a van, being beaten up or worse, or jailed.
That takes courage. Ask yourself in your own locality how many people would do the same if you ask them tomorrow. And it’s that courage and that resilience that will bring about an end to this theocratic regime. And they know it, and they’re listening to it. And just as it took so long for the Berlin Wall to come down, when it happened, there were scenes of jubilation. When it happened at the ETA, the Spanish revolt ended. Or the Columbia thing which went on for 50 years with the FARC.
So, I think that what you should look at, if I might suggest, the tools are all here. The United Nations has passed so many resolutions. No resolution brings about a change of regime. But these things must be followed up.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, the European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs, the High Representative from the European Parliament to be appointed very shortly, dealing with this, and the Council of Europe dealing with human rights.
This campaign has to be relentless. Not once a week, not once a month, not once every six months. Every day there should be contact with Iranian ambassadors where they are located around the world, from governments or parliamentarians, about another incident in Tehran or wherever. They’ve got to do it every day.
And your name and face have to be as well-known as top spokespeople around the world. That when she’s in town, she’s here on behalf of the Iranian people who want freedom and democracy in their own country. I think that it’s obvious that sanctions haven’t worked.
For instance, the Rial is still a low-based currency anyway. But it hasn’t worked because of crypto, bitcoin, shadow fleets, barter, shady deals, and corruption being endemic in the country. It’s time now for a clear vision, decisiveness, and substance to these matters once and for all. And the more that this regime, the more it oppresses people and represses them in Iran, the stronger will be the resistance to what’s happening.
And that’s why it’s critical that the message to the Iranian people is to keep doing as you’re doing. But the message to the Iranian diaspora worldwide is one to say you need to implement and assist with authority from outside. I think the president of Moldova mentioned about the diasporic function. We have 5 million people at home and 75 million worldwide. They wield enormous influence. And they are all connected by local radio stations from the republic or by national news or whatever else. They know what’s going on in the country.
The same should apply in Iran, which is a much bigger country than our small island. There are hundreds of millions of Iranian people worldwide. If this regime knows that every one of those people knows that they’re doing wrong, then the end becomes closer. You can never predict when something like this is actually going to happen.
I looked there at young Tarinaz, I wrote it down, with his mask and saying his piece in the video from Tehran. And what did he say? He says, I do not want freedom to be a dream. I dream of freedom. But the point is that freedom should not be a dream, neither should opportunity and a life to be lived.
It reminded me of the 10th day of June in 1963, shortly before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, when he spoke at the American University in Washington to young people and said in his remarks, we all live on this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s futures, and we are all mortal.
Good luck in your endeavors, whatever support the Irish people will give you.
Thank you.
