Message by Maryam Rajavi -Conference at the United States Senate

Maryam Rajavi

Dear Friends,

I offer my greetings and extend my gratitude for your attention to the issue of Iran and the Iranian people’s resistance movement.

I thank you for supporting the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and human rights.

It is inspiring to see a significant group of distinguished personalities demonstrating admirable realism, believing that the solution to the vital crisis in the Middle East is to confront Islamic extremism, especially the religious dictatorship ruling Iran as the epicenter of fundamentalism and terrorism, and also to stand with the struggle of the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance.

This Resistance is committed to liberate Iran from tyranny and barbarism, to restore that nation’s great civilization, to cultivate peace and coexistence, and to end the reign of fear and terror under the name of Islam.

Our world, from Asia, the Middle East and Africa to France, Belgium, Denmark and the United States, has been targeted by a common enemy: extremism under the name of Islam.

Its followers may have different faces – Shiite or Sunni – yet their ideological pillars and their plan of action are essentially one and the same.

Moreover, all of them, from inception to expansion, have relied on the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran.

Without the fundamentalist regime in Iran, the idea of an Islamic Caliphate, or the desire to erase national borders or the massacres under the banner of Jihad would not have existed or happened.

The horrific acts perpetrated by the likes of DAESH or Boko Haram today are all inspired by the mullahs of Iran, who have carried out the same type of crimes against the Iranian people for decades.

The regime is carrying out the same sort of atrocities through its terrorist Qods Force, Hezbollah and so-called Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

The mindset that motivated Khomeini’s fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie (in the 1980s) is the same outlook that led to the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The mindset that motivated Khomeini’s fatwa to murder 30,000 Iranian political prisoners (in 1988) also inspired the cleansing of Sunnis in Iraq and the slaughter of people in Paris and health workers in California recently.

This is the same evil spirit that led to assaults on female political prisoners in Iran or Yazidi women in Iraq.

But beyond its ideological impact, let’s consider its practical policies.

If it were not for the massacre of the people in Syria by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is working to keep Assad in power, Syria would not have become the breeding ground for DAESH.

If it were not for the harmful meddling of the mullahs and the horrific suppression carried out by the Iranian regime’s puppet in Iraq, former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, DAESH would not have found the opportunity to occupy swathes of that country’s territory.

The formation of the US-led international coalition in 2014 to confront DAESH was a positive step. But the coalition’s strategy lacked a decisive policy vis-à-vis the mullahs’ regime in Iran, which is the source of the regional crisis.

Destroying DAESH depends on ousting Assad in Syria and on evicting the Iranian regime and its affiliated militias from Iraq.

Despite some differences with Assad and the clerical regime in Iran, DAESH is, in practice, on their side. The prime targets of DAESH have been moderate Syrian forces.

Let me be clear, the ultimate solution to fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism under the name of Islam is the overthrow of the religious fascism ruling Iran at the hands of the Iranian people and Resistance.

For this reason, the mullahs spare no opportunity to commit crimes meant to destroy this Resistance, including missile attacks on its defenseless members in Camp Liberty in Iraq. This is because the mullahs view the Iranian Resistance as an existential threat.

Allow me here to express my gratitude for the decisive positions adopted by Senators McCain, Schumer, Menendez, Blunt, Shaheen and Tillis in condemning the recent missile attack against Liberty.

On behalf of the Iranian people and the residents of Camp Liberty, I would of course like to especially thank Senator McCain and Senator Jack Reed for their initiative concerning the residents of Liberty, which became part of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.

Today, the residents of Camp Liberty are in an extremely vulnerable and risky situation and they remain under siege.

The United States had made a commitment to protect them officially and in writing, but it has failed to uphold that commitment.

On October 29, 24 residents lost their lives in the missile attack that was directed by the mullahs.

To date, a total of 141 innocent refugees have been killed in seven attacks and 27 have lost their lives as a result of the inhumane siege.

I call upon lawmakers to urge the U.S. government to put Camp Liberty under the aerial protection of the U.S. Air Force.

The prevention of another humanitarian catastrophe at Camp Liberty and providing protection for the Iranian freedom fighters transcends the interests of the Iranian people alone.

Such measures are vital to confronting the evil of Islamic fundamentalism orchestrated by the mullahs of Iran, who in order to prevent their overthrow in Iran, are setting the whole region on fire. 

The overthrow of the mullahs in Iran will guarantee peace and security in the region and the world.

I thank you all very much.