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Remarks by Former UK MP David Jones at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit

Iran Freedom

Former UK MP David Jones
Former UK MP David Jones

On June 29, 2024,  at the Free Iran 2024 World Summit hosted at the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) headquarters in Paris, David Jones, former MP from the United Kingdom and co-president of the British Committee for Iran Freedom, delivered an impactful speech. Mr. Jones highlighted the growing global support for Iran’s democratic resistance led by President-elect Maryam Rajavi.

The full text of David Jones’s speech follows:

Madam Rajavi, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a great pleasure to be here today with so many colleagues from around the world. I only hope that this platform can take the weight. And may I extend a special greeting to our friends in Ashraf 3, Albania, and those who are gathered in Berlin.

And may I also start by bringing you some exciting and important news. I’m delighted to announce today that the new initiative in Iran, the Declaration for A Free Iran 2024, has attracted the support of more than 4,000 parliamentarians from 50 countries and 84 parliaments from around the world. And that includes the majority support of 34 of those parliaments, including the British House of Commons and House of Lords.

This is an absolutely extraordinary achievement. And we must thank and congratulate all those colleagues from diverse parties right around the world for their magnificent show of support for the Iranian Resistance, for President Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, and the struggle of the Resistance Units for a democratic republic of Iran. Please show your appreciation for all those brave people.

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed an evolution in the position of the regime in Tehran. It’s developed from an obstacle to the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people to what is now, as we’ve already heard from so many speakers, one of the greatest threats to peace and security, not only in the Middle East but also in Europe and in the wider world. No serious international observer could challenge that.

In 1979, the theocracy that was now in power in Tehran hijacked the Iranian people’s democratic revolution, imposed itself through force, and began a war on those same people and their organized resistance movement, and that war continues. Despite the patent aggression that was displayed by the regime, many in the West naively believed that they could change its behavior through the exercise of dialogue and incentive. That strategy, which can only be called appeasement, simply emboldened the regime and allowed it to extend its influence both within the region and globally. And the effect of that policy was to confer impunity on the regime while marginalizing the democratic opposition, the NCRI, and the PMOI.

Colleagues, that strategy was wrong. It has clearly failed and should not continue. Because the Iranian people are engaged in a struggle for democratic change. And we, all of us, should support them in that aim.

For many years, I and my colleagues in the cross-party British Committee for Iran Freedom have called for a firm policy on Iran. And I’m pleased to announce our new initiative, which was completed just before the dissolution of the British Parliament for the current general election. It’s been backed by 553 British MPs and peers and urges the United Kingdom government to pursue such a policy. At its heart is the call for the recognition of the Iranian people’s right to resist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.

We also, in the committee, call for the recognition of the Iranian democratic opposition and Madam Rajavi’s ten-point plan, as well as for the prosecution of crimes against humanity of those who were responsible for the 1988 massacre. And finally, we emphasize the need to proscribe the IRGC and to secure the rights of dissidents in Ashraf 3.

The future of Iran must be determined by the people of Iran, who very clearly want a democratic republic. And that will only be achieved through an organized, democratic resistance movement exemplified by Madam Rajavi and the NCRI.

We know that the surviving remnants of the Shah’s dictatorship and the theocratic regime are doing all they can to target and pursue the NCRI and the PMOI. But they don’t understand that the NCRI is the very embodiment of the will of the Iranian people and that the NCRI will prevail. Because the brutality of the regime only strengthens the determination of the NCRI to fight even harder for the liberation of the Iranian people. Democratic change and the creation of a democratic republic in Iran are drawing ever closer.

And in the words of two great British parliamentarians, our dear late friends Sir David Amess and Lord Corbett, who fought so hard over so many years, who fought so hard for this great cause, we are fast approaching the day when Iran will be free.

Thank you very much.

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