On March 1, 2024 at the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras, former Vice President of the European Parliament, celebrated his recovery and reconnection with the Iranian Resistance. He voiced a renewed commitment to continue the fight against Iran’s oppressive regime.
With bold resolve, he directly confronted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accusing him of orchestrating his assassination attempt. He stressed that their efforts to silence him only reinforced his dedication to advocate for freedom and democracy in Iran, standing in solidarity with the Iranian people and their resistance movement.
Below is the full transcript of Dr. Alejo Vidal Quadras’ speech:
Last Friday, I had a press conference in Madrid and there was a great number of journalists and TV cameras and great interest because since the terrorist attack, I suffered on 9 November, I did not speak to any media. So absolute silence.
I did this first of all because frankly, most of this time I was not in the physical condition to face the questions, and I was not always comfortable with the journalist. And because if I had the privilege of one media in front of the others, I would be in trouble. So I was silent for three months and at home I was also quite silent because Amparo told me what to do. I was also quite silent.
In this press conference that, as I say, has created a lot of expectation, I convey to the Iranian regime two messages:
The first one was that they failed miserably because they wanted, they wanted to eliminate quite an annoying enemy. That’s me. And also they wanted to scare, to frighten all of you and many others that are not here, that have been supporting the National Council of Resistance and Mrs. Rajavi for many years, very bravely.
They wanted this to eliminate me and to scare a large number of political men and women and intellectuals and academics who supported the movement, the Resistance, and President Rajavi.
Well, my message was, that you have failed. I am alive, I have recovered. And all these people you wanted to scare, not only they would never have been scared by you, even if I had died, but now that I have not died, they are redoubling their commitment to the movement.
And my second message to the Supreme Leader is because in Iran there is nothing but the Supreme Leader.
My second message to the Supreme Leader was from now on, that you have ordered to kill me, not only I will not go backward, I will go on with my work of full collaboration with the Iranian Resistance, with more enthusiasm, with more energy and more determination than before.
Just now, before coming to this meeting and meeting so many good old friends, when one has passed through a trauma like the one I have passed, you cannot imagine the joy of meeting my friends again.
Just before coming to this meeting, I was with French journalists who interviewed me in the hotel just before coming here. And they asked me something that is a key question. He was an intelligent journalist. He asked, why is it that the Western governments of the European Union, the United States, and Canada, of the Western democracies, why is it they are so complacent with the Iranian regime.
Why are they not stronger, more firm, more effective against such a regime? And then I explained to him, and it was obvious that he had never thought about the problem in this way.
So, he learned something from this interview. I told him, look, there is a clear difference, a very revealing difference, between the support the Iranian Resistance gets from people elected, elected parliamentarians, municipal councilors, mayors in regional parliaments, national parliaments, European Parliament, and the American Congress.
There is a great difference between the support they get from people elected compared to the support, to the lack of support they get from governments. And this is something that is extremely interesting to analyze. Because people are elected, they are more prone to follow principles, ideas, beliefs, and convictions.
They are more prone to follow the moral aspects of political issues. Governments are extremely vulnerable to what is called realpolitik.
I have pointed out quite several times, the four instruments the regime uses to influence, scare, and intimidate Western governments, and Western democracies.
One is their capacity to organize terrorist action in any place in the world. I am now a privileged witness to this. They have done it in the past, many times, and they are still doing it.
Jean Francis was remembering 2018. The attempt to kill many of us. What happened to me on 9th November? The plot to kill our good friend, John Bolton, also recently. Fortunately, the plot was neutralized before they could do it.
So, this is the first tool the regime uses to intimidate Western democracies. Their capacity to organize terrorist action at any point, in any place in the world.
Governments are the same. To save political parties in our democracies, political parties need votes. And a terrorist attack in the right moment, in the right place, can change the political landscape of a country in Spain.
In 2011, the March 11 attack changed completely the intention of the voters and changed dramatically the political developments in Spain. So, governments are very scared of the capacity of the regime to organize terrorist action in any place in the world.
The second instrument is the taking of hostages and trapping them for their terrorists who are in prison in Europe or the States. Here again, the governments, under the pressure of public opinion and the families of the hostages, in the end, accept the requirements of their regime just to bring back their nationality to the country.
The third instrument is the nuclear deal, this stupid trap in which Western governments have fallen. Of course, mullahs say to our prime ministers and our governments, look, if you are too unpleasant to us, we will have a missile with a nuclear warhead in a few months and you will see, then what happens. And the Western governments are terrified and they accept a trap like the nuclear deal.
And the last and fourth is that there are strong and important economic interests for some big European or other companies to do business in Iran. That’s why I explained to this journalist the difference between the support the movement has in parliaments, in municipalities and the lack of support in governments.
So, he understood it and I hope he publishes it. Many other people will also understand, because as long as governments do not change their understanding of the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in world geopolitics, and they do not realize that their policy of appeasement until now has been a disaster and that they must change radically this policy, we will not succeed.
So my conclusion is that we must make all possible efforts to bring to the Western public opinion. After all, in our democracies, governments are very attentive and follow public opinion because their success depends on public opinion.
We must make all our efforts to bring to the European and American public opinion the importance, the absolute importance of transforming this dictatorship, this theocracy, this criminal regime that tortures their own people and does terrorism outside to transform this shame into a democracy with free elections, with equality between men and women, with a sound market economy.
The Ten-Point Plan of Mrs. Rajavi. This is our work to make our citizens understand the importance of this change. Because today the geopolitical landscape has changed a lot. If we compare it to the last 20 or 30 years.
Today there is an axis, China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. This axis has a goal to destroy, to end the way, our way of life, our democracies, and our principles.
There is a permanent will of all these countries to destroy Western civilization. And Iran is a key element of this offensive. We must make governments and people understand if there is regime change in Iran, led by NCRI and Mrs. Rajavi, to a true democracy, the whole landscape, the geopolitical landscape would change dramatically and would change in a good direction.
I’ll finish with that.
This is our mission; this must be our priority for the next years. And of course, you can call me selfish, but there is another very important aspect. Struan, Paolo, and I, want to live under and see the Iranian regime fall.
Thank you very much.
