Bernard Kouchner, Foreign Minister of France (2007-2010) addressed the first day of the Free Iran World Summit on July 1, 2023.

Bernard Kouchner: I Wish Madam Rajavi to Prevail

The full text of Former French FM Bernard Kouchner’s remarks is as follows:

Thank you, Madame Rajavi, again it’s time to congratulate you. Today is a special day. I’m very proud to be French. Because while we are gathering and talking together, in Paris, as you saw certainly, thousands and thousands of Iranians are demonstrating in the streets of Paris. And today, it was a special clearance [sic] for them because certainly you noticed that in other places of France, the demonstrators were not so kind.

I want to congratulate you for obtaining the authorization for the Iranians to come and express their support for your resistance movement and their support for the expected prospect of a new Republic, as written here, and the anticipated liberation of your country. So, there is something that concerns me, and I agree with what my colleague Hubert Védrine said, and I will probably agree with what my colleague Michèle Alliot-Marie will say.

But I would like to emphasize a very particular point. Iran is a country ruled by barbarians, and religious barbarians at that, which is worse. But Iran manufactures a number of weapons of war, a number of drones, which are currently bombing and killing the Ukrainian people. And I ask you to make a connection, to combine all those feelings and facts. The drones are manufactured by a country that threatens us, Iran, for many reasons. We are rejecting this, and the French Republic, the French government, and the French people entirely reject this pressure and the looming danger.

But in this new world, as we meet each year, and the world has evolved, each time it has evolved, well, in this new world, there is an alliance that is being created and is very, very dangerous. I am referring to Russia, which itself is killing Ukrainians. I won’t even talk about Mr. Putin, that would be too easy. What happened was ridiculous.

No, but I’m talking about the alliance between Russia and Iran. The supply of weapons from Iran to Russia, and what follows, namely the assassination of the Ukrainian people, who are defending themselves very well, and I salute them too.

So, I wouldn’t mention my admiration for the fight of Mrs. Rajavi, and for the impact it has in the world, and for all the good that I wish for her in order to finally change this regime of the mullahs. I am talking about the fight that is unfolding now, and about Iranians who do not see that what is happening in their country is connected to all of this. That is one of the dangers. So, the world is very dangerous. The weapons manufactured by Iran are currently killing, and I wanted to not overlook this country by once again acknowledging your fight, Madam, the fight of all those who are here, and who, today, here, but also in Paris, in France, are the specific supporters of a fight that I obviously wish you victory in, and I thank you very much.