Maryam Rajavi – this voice must be heard NOW

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, during her speech yesterday in the European parliament in Strasbourg. Foto: ScS EJ

(KL) – It was not the first time that Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), had been to Strasbourg – back in 2004, she warned the European Parliament about developments in Iran and said even then that there were three options, two of which would lead to ruin and one to a modern, democratic Iran. Regime change through appeasement will not lead to anything, as this has been tried for a long time without success. A military overthrow of the regime could even exacerbate the chaos. And so the third option remains – democratic change, as desired by the majority of the Iranian people today.

Maryam Rajavi’s speech was a difficult one – because while she was speaking in the European parliament, the bombing of her country’s nuclear infrastructure continued. It is interesting to note that two of the enrichment plants where uranium-235 is enriched into weapons-grade uranium were first made public by members of the NCRI at great risk, which also invalidates the Iranian narrative that it only wants to use nuclear power for civil purposes. Maryam Rajavi was right to largely avoid the topic of war – instead, she emphasized the NCRI’s 10-point plan, which already enjoys widespread support and offers the potential to enable a peaceful transition from a fascist theocracy to a modern democracy.

This plan aims to hold free elections no later than six months after the end of the mullahs’ regime; Iran should remain free of nuclear weapons; women’s rights should be enshrined in the constitution and implemented; the death penalty, which is used inflationarily in Iran, must be abolished; support for terrorist organizations should be stopped immediately; Iran should become an element of stabilization in the Middle East; state and religion should be separated, and the numerous ethnic minorities in Iran should be granted autonomous status. This plan is the only way to prevent Iran from descending into chaos when the mullahs are overthrown. And the end of the mullah’s regime is now only a matter of time, because this brutal regime no longer has any support among the population, except among those who are politically or financially involved with it.

Also interesting – the NCRI has no intention of coming to power itself and is therefore not (yet?) a “government in exile.” Maryam Rajavi said yesterday that as soon as a constituent parliament is elected, the NCRI’s mission will end. This attitude makes the NCRI and Maryam Rajavi candidates for the Sakharov Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Numerous MEPs were present at her speech in Parliament yesterday, and here, as well as in Washington, consideration must now be given to how the NCRI can be supported before the situation in Iran spirals completely out of control.

This raises the question of why European and American institutions do not recognize the NCRI as the temporary Iranian government, declare the Revolutionary Guards, whose leaders have been eliminated, a terrorist organization, and support the NCRI in operating openly in Iran. Expressions of solidarity are good and important, but in view of the developments in the Middle East, they are no longer sufficient. The US and the EU must act decisively now, otherwise it could well happen that the next regime in Iran will be no better than that of the Shah and then the mullahs. Now is the time to listen to and support actors like Maryam Rajavi!