Iranian dissidents call for regime change
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Iranian dissidents
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LE BOURGET, France — Tens of thousands of supporters of a
dissident Iranian opposition group filled a vast convention hall here over the
weekend to call for the downfall of Iran’s theocratic
government.
The massive and boisterous event, which occurs
annually in this town just north of Paris, was led by the
controversial National Council of Resistance of Iran, a France-based
umbrella group for Iranian exiles that brought dozens of former U.S., European
and Middle Eastern officials together to speak out on its behalf.
A bipartisan clutch of Americans, including
former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former FBI
Director Louis Freeh and a host of others was on hand.
But perhaps the most eye-opening speech came
from a key figure of the Saudi royal family, whose posture towardIran’s leadership has
grown increasingly tense during the year since world powers put in place a
major nuclear accord with the Islamic republic.
Prince Turki bin Faisal Al-Saud, the former
longtime Saudi intelligence chief, drew loud cheers and applause from the
Iranian dissident crowd when he exclaimed that he too wants the government in Tehran to be
overthrown and that their “fight against the regime will reach its goal sooner
or later.”
In a sign that Arab frustration toward Tehran reaches far
beyond Saudi Arabia, Prince Turki was preceded on stage by a delegation of
several other former and current officials from 12 Arab nations — all of whom
also voiced support for the plight of the National
Council of Resistance of Iran.
Yet the most vitriolic remarks at the rally,
which occurred Saturday, came from the American delegation, which included
former governors Bill Richardson and Tom Ridge, former George W. Bush
administration U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton — and included a presentation of
video statements from several current members of Congress.
Mr. Gingrich stoked the crowd by lamenting the Obama
administration-backed nuclear deal. The accord went into effect a
year ago this week and saw many economic sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange
for an agreement by Tehranto
curtail its long-disputed nuclear program.
The “dictatorship” in Iran “cannot be
trusted,” Mr. Gingrich said, adding that “the agreement made with it is
insane.”
Mr. Bolton went even
further. “There is only one answer here: to support legitimate opposition
groups that favor overthrowing the military theocratic dictatorship in Tehran,” he said. “Let me
be very clear: It should be the declared policy of the United States of America
and all its friends to do just that at the earliest opportunity.”
Both men appeared on stage with Mr.
Richardson, a Democrat, who said he was “proud to be here with Speaker Gingrich
and Ambassador Bolton,” and told the crowd that American “Democrats and
Republicans are together here fighting with you.”
All three were flanked by multiple movie
screen-size displays carrying the slogan: “Free Iran. Our Pledge: Regime
Change.”
Saturday’s rally was a marathon that included
more than nine hours of speeches and musical performances. The National
Council of Resistance of Iran has come to be known during more
recent years as perhaps the only dissent group on the planet with enough money
and political juice to rally tens of thousands of supporters in the heart of
Europe each June behind a collective call for the overthrow of Iran’s Shiite Islamist
government.
No one disputes that the National Council has
influence — some even describe it as the largest Iranian dissident group in the
world. But the organization’s persistence and tactics have given it a
double-edged reputation even among some of Iran’s Western critics.
National Council leader Maryam Rajavi
headlined Saturday’s rally with a demand that Washington abandon the Iranian
nuclear accord and take a far more aggressive posture toward Tehran.
Mrs. Rajavi has led the movement since its
founder — her husband, Massoud Rajavi — went into hiding in 2003. In an email
interview ahead of the rally, she said participants “represent the voice of
millions of Iranians who are being oppressed in their country and who seek
regime change and the establishment of a democratic, pluralist and non-nuclear
government based on the separation of religion and state.”
“Their expectation of the next U.S. president,
as with other Western leaders, is to abandon the policy of appeasement, which
emboldens the Tehran regime
to intensify the suppression of the Iranian people while continuing the policy
of exporting terrorism to the region,” she said.
She also referred broadly to a “resistance”
movement that she claimed has grown inside Iran during recent
years even as the government has cracked down on opposition.
“Despite the intensification of the
suppression over the past couple of years, we have witnessed a growing interest
among the Iranian people, especially women and youth, toward the Iranian
Resistance,” Mrs. Rajavi said. “The opposition to the regime is expanding. The
Resistance’s network inside Iran is much more
active in terms of organizing strikes, protests, sit-ins and other protest acts
inside the country and even inside prisons. The Resistance has had numerous
achievements in this regard.”
She also pushed back against characterizations
of the National Council and its various affiliate organizations as acting like
a cult.
“The source of these allegations is the
Iranian regime’s intelligence ministry,” she said. “The regime’s lobbies in the
West paint the Iranian opposition as a ‘cult’ or ‘terrorist group’ lacking
popular support. By doing so, they want to perpetuate the notion that there is
no other alternative for Iran except dealing
with the ruling religious dictatorship.
“I have said repeatedly that we are not
fighting to obtain power in Iran,” Mrs. Rajavi said.
“We are not even fighting for a share of power. We are fighting to create a
situation where the people of Iran are able to
freely elect the people they choose. I and our movement will certainly support
anyone who is elected through the ballot box in the course of free and fair
elections monitored internationally.”
On a separate front, the National Council
leader said that state political freedom and human rights have only worsened in Iran since the inking
of last year’s nuclear deal.
“The pace of
executions has intensified,” she said.
While the Obama administration lifted many
economic sanctions on Iran under
last year’s nuclear accord, the State Department has continued to list the
nation as a state sponsor of terrorism, and international sanctions remain on
the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
But Mrs. Rajavi suggested the remaining
sanctions were irrelevant.
She criticized, for instance, the prospective
agreement that has made headlines recently between Boeing and the government in Tehran, asserting that if
the deal goes through, planes made by the American aerospace giant “will
directly or indirectly be used by the IRGC” and “will facilitate the regime’s
activities for sending forces and arms to Syria and other countries in the
region.”
• This article is excerpted from a staff report
that appeared in The Washington Times on July 11, 2016.http://bit.ly/29y5Czm http://bit.ly/29RWx58,
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