On the brink of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, an online international summit, entitled “Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy, Time to Hold the Iranian Regime Accountable,” brought together Iranians in various countries around the world from 10,000 locations.
Among the personalities who addressed the summit were 30 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from the House and the Senate, including Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Roy Blunt, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Bob Menendez, and dignitaries like Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor, General James Jones, National Security Advisor to President Obama (2009-2010), Newt Gingrich, 50th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Joseph Lieberman, former U.S. Senator, as well as a delegation of U.K. lawmakers, and Amb. Giulio Terzi, former Foreign Minister of Italy.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the keynote speaker of the summit, paid tribute to Navid Afkari, a rebellious national hero recently executed by the regime and said: “Faced with executions and massacres, the people of Iran urge the United Nations, and the U.N. Security Council, in particular, to restore snapback sanctions stipulated in the six U.N. resolutions against the clerical regime in Iran. Otherwise, Khamenei will continue to ravage the nation as his regime’s survival depends on murder and suppression. If Khamenei were to stop executions, he would lose control of the situation, and uprisings simmering in the depths of Iranian society would erupt and overthrow the mullahs’ religious fascism.”
Speakers in the summit demanded justice for over 30,000 MEK and other activists, political prisoners massacred in 1988. They urged an end to the policy of appeasement and demanded those who ordered and carried out this great crime, who currently occupy high positions in the regime, to be brought to justice.
U.S. Senator Rob Portman joined the summit. In his remarks, Senator Portman said, “We must continue to show strength in the face of the regime’s attempts at undermining the international rule of law and spreading international terrorism as well.”
U.S. Senator Rob Portman
Our conflict is not with the people of Iran, but rather with the fundamentalist regime that currently oppresses them. We must continue to show strength in the face of the regime’s attempts at undermining the international rule of law and spreading international terrorism as well. I have supported this administration’s stance against the Iranian government and will continue to advocate for a tough policy that prevents them from acquiring nuclear weapons and exporting chaos throughout the region. The people of Iran deserve better than a government that spends its scarce resources on proxy forces and terrorism instead of domestic priorities.
The recent execution of the wrestler Navid Afkari on manufactured charges is just one more example of a corrupt regime that does not care for the basic human rights of its people. There’s a way forward for the government of Iran to rejoin the international community rather than continue to be a pariah and the top sponsor of state terrorism in the entire world. They must commit to the democratic reforms, protect the rights of their citizens, and cease their campaigns of terror and destabilization. This includes their efforts to target American forces in Iraq as well as launching ballistic missiles at their neighbors.
Let me be clear, our argument is not with the Iranian people who have been so poorly served by their own repressive government for more than four decades now. I’m heartened that groups such as yours comprised of freedom-loving Iranian Americans continue to stand in opposition to the barbarism of the mullahs and to show the world that the Iranian people desire freedom most of all. Thank you for your important work on this issue. God speed.
