General (Ret.) James L. Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama (2009-2010), former USMC Commandant, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, addressed at the Free Iran World Summit 2021 on July 10, 2021.
It’s an honor and a privilege to be joining you in the Free Iran World Summit this year. President-elect Maryam Rajavi, honorable guests, from all indications Iran has gone through this seminal transformation, much of the chagrin of the medieval tyrannies apologists, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei engineered the election of one of his most loyal and ruthless cronies, Ebrahim Raisi, to the presidency.
Raisi has risen through the ranks of the regime through barbaric murder and suppression, and became president of the regime this year through a sham election in a fraudulent process. The people of Iran boycotted the regime’s elections because they know it is an unfair and undemocratic process with a horrendous outcome. That even according to the regime’s exaggerated figures of less than 20% cast their ballots in Tehran goes to show that this regime does not have an iota of legitimacy among the Iranian people.
The election also put an end to the false narrative of the regime itself and its western apologists found the world for more than four decades of concessions and turning a blind eye on the Mullahs excesses at home and abroad is necessary to empower the so-called moderates within the ruling clique. As millions of Iranians chanted during the 2017 and 2019 nationwide uprisings, “Hardliners reformers, the game is now over.” Indeed, if the past is prologue, the policy pursued so far only strengthened the most ruthless and radical factions of this regime to the detriment of the Iranian people and regional peace and stability. The Resistance Unites MEK activists in Iran should be commended for their effective work inside Iran to encourage the people of Iran to reject this regime.
Mrs. Rajavi, your call for the boycott was heard loud and clear. Through their boycott, the Iranian people made it palpably clear that they will not be satisfied with anything less than the overthrow of this medieval theocracy, and all of its factions. Raisi’s selection also showed how weak and frail this regime has become.
During this process, Khamenei could not even trust his closest confidants like Ali Larijani, who for 12 years, was the head of the regime’s parliament. He was a secretary of the regime supreme security council, and who is now a personal adviser to Khamenei, and a special representative on foreign missions, including the deal with China.
Khamenei could not only trust someone like Raisi, a mass murder and genocidal madman who has been involved in some of the regime’s most heinous crimes. In 1988, Raisi was a member of the death committee that oversaw the execution and mass murder of over 30,000 political prisoners across Iran. The victims were buried in mass graves and their families know nothing about their fate. They were executed for their belief in democracy, and the overwhelming majority of them were members and supporters of the principle MEK.
In his first post-election news conference, Raisi, who was known as the henchmen of 1988 by the Iranian people, said he was proud of committing these crimes against humanity, and that he should be commended for protecting the regime.
The outcome of the election is an indication of what the Iranian resistance has been saying for the past four decades, that this regime is incapable of reform, and that no amount of political and economic concessions will moderate his behavior. It is somewhat inconceivable that the West does not condemn this international criminal. What more does he need to do to deserve condemnation from democratic countries? Already, leading human rights institutions and top UN Human Rights experts have called for an imperial investigation into Raisi’s role in the 1988 massacre.
Why the silence? It is time to end the culture of impunity for Tehran’s mass murderers. Enough is enough. It is disgraceful and shameful that Tehran continues to enjoy impunity some 30 years after the 1988 massacre, the massacre of at least 1,500 protesters in November 2019.
We should stop appeasing the theocratic regime in a futile quest for moderates or reformers. The genocidal regime cannot be reformed or moderated, as the rise of Raisi has shown us. Raisi’s determinants to the regime’s presidency approves once and for all, the change cannot come from within the regime, but only from the people themselves.
So, when one looks at the Iranian political landscape, one inevitably recognizes that there are only two forces arrayed against one another: the Mullahs, the NCRI, and the MEK. In other words, there is an organized and highly effective opposition, the NCRI led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, which offers a truly democratic and viable alternative. This is an alternative that not only enjoys support at home, but also our growing international legitimacy. Freedom is advancing both inside and outside of Iran.
The international community must support Mrs. Rajavi’s 10-point plan, which calls for a free democratic, secular and non-nuclear republic in Iran. The people of this one’s proud country deserve nothing less.
