On the brink of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session, an online international summit, entitled “Trans-Atlantic Summit on Iran Policy, Time to Hold the Iranian Regime Accountable,” was held September 18. The Summit brought together Iranians in various countries around the world from 10,000 locations. Mr. Don Bacon, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, joined the Summit.

Among the personalities who addressed the summit were 30 bipartisan U.S. lawmakers from the House and the Senate. Personalities 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 Ambassador Giulio Terzi, former Foreign Minister of Italy.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the keynote speaker of the summit

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI was the keynote speaker of the summit. She paid tribute to Navid Afkari, a rebellious national hero recently executed by the regime. Mrs. Rajavi said: “Faced with executions and massacres, the people of Iran urge the U.N. 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.”

She continued,”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.”

At the summit, speakers demanded justice for over 30,000 MEK and other activists, political prisoners massacred in 1988. As a result they urged an end to the appeasement policy and requested those who ordered and carried out this great crime, who currently occupy high positions in the regime, to be brought to justice.

Don Bacon, member of the U.S. House of Representatives joined to the summit. In his remarks, Mr. Bacon said, “It’s really the regime. In the regime, the mullahs endanger the neighbors. It’s intolerable. But even beyond that, what the regime does to its people is even worse.”

Don Bacon, member of the U.S. House of Representatives

This is Don Bacon from the Second District of Nebraska, and I just appreciate the opportunity to speak at the Human Rights 2020 Convention, and I’m really focused on Iran. Now I served in the military for nearly 30 years, 16 assignments.

I had four deployments in the Middle East, and so I got to study a lot what was going on there. And we were frequently targeted by groups that were aligned with the regime of Iran when I was in Iraq, in particular, but a little bit in Afghanistan. And, so I got the word first-hand of behavior of the government of Iran and how it endangers all of its neighbors.

It is the leading exporter of terror, the regime, the government of Iran, and they undermine many countries of its neighbors, all the way to Israel, frankly, all the countries in between.

And we, and I say this as a representative of the Second District, but I know we, as the American people, desire to have a country of Iran that is peaceful, that is peaceful with its neighbors, peaceful with us, cos we don’t want fights. We don’t want friction with the Iranian people. I have known so many Iranian Americans and people from Iran that are the most kind, loving, good people that you’d ever meet. So it’s not about the people of Iran. We want peace.

It’s really the regime. In the regime, the mullahs endanger the neighbors. It’s intolerable. But even beyond that, what the regime does to its people is even worse. The way they treat the Iranian people, taking away their freedoms, their religious freedoms, their freedom of the press, their freedom to assemble, their freedom to criticize…and that’s what we take for granted here in America. But really, all people want that.

And the regime in Iran mistreats their people, and it’s wrong. So the people of America, we stand with the Iranians. We want you to have a country that respects you and a country that plays well and works well with its neighbors. That’s our dream. And, so I hope you have a great Human Rights 2020. Someday in my lifetime, I hope that we can have a great friendship with the country of Iran, where the people of Iran and the people of America can be great friends.