MARYAM RAJAVI WELCOMES THE FIRST TESTIMONY BY A US PRESIDENT UNDERSCORING THE NEED FOR CHANGE IN IRAN

CATEGORIES // Statements

Recognition of the NCRI as the only democratic alternative to the clerical regime is indispensable for rectifying the U.S.’s past disastrous policy on Iran

In a portion of his address to the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly on September 19, U.S. President Donald Trump made remarks about the people of Iran and the religious fascism ruling the country. He accurately attested to the fact that “the longest-suffering victims of Iran's leaders are, in fact, its own people.” He also said, “The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change.”

The President of the United States pointed out that the resources belonging to the Iranian people are diverted in order to shore up Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship in Syria, fuel Yemen's civil war, and the Hezbollah. He also said the regime’s “chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos” and that “Iran's people are what their leaders fear the most.”

Maryam Rajavi welcomed President Trump’s reamarks and characterized them as the first testimony by a US President over the past 38 years to underscore the need for regime change in Iran by the Iranian people, a cause that has been the declared policy of the Iranian Resistance for the past 36 years. Maryam Rajavi added, “The recognition of the National Council of Resistance of Iran as the only democratic alternative to the terrorist, religious dictatorship in Iran is indispensable to ending and rectifying the United States’ disasterous past policy towards the people of Iran.”

Maryam Rajavi cited the United States’ breach of promises to protect the residents of Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq, the terrorist designation of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which paved the way for the suppression of the main Iranian opposition to the mullahs, and concessions to the Iranian regime tied to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), as some of the most embarrassing examples of U.S. actions with significant costs and losses for the people of Iran.

The Iranian Resistance believes that the statements of the U.S. President need to be supplemented by a series of practical measures in order to be made into reality. Such measures could include:

• The dossier of the Iranian regime’s crimes, particularly the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, must be referred to the International Criminal Court, and the regime’s leaders and perpetrators of these crimes must face justice;

• The clerical regime must be evicted from the Middle East and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its mercenary militias must be expelled from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon;

• And, the previous UN Security Council resolutions on the clerical regime’s nuclear weapons projects, ban on nuclear enrichment, as well as free and unconditional inspections of military and non-military centers must be implemented.

The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 19, 2017

EU LAWMAKERS CALL THE UN TO INVESTIGATE THE MASSACRE OF 1988 IN IRAN AND TO PROSECUTE THE PERPS

• Iran
• Maryam Rajavi
• NCRI
• PMOI/MEK
• Human rights
• United States

On Wednesday, 13 September 2017, the Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament (FOFI), held a conference at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg with the participation of dozens of MEPs. They called on the Council of the European Union, the member states and the High Representative of the European Union, Mrs. Federica Mogherini, to end silence and

inaction with respect to the brutal violation of human rights in Iran. In particular, they called for an independent investigation by the United Nations into the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in Iran in 1988 and the preparation of the trial for those responsible for this crime.

The meeting was moderated by Gérard Deprez MEP (ALDE Group), chair of FOFI, which has the support of around 300 parliamentarians from various political groups and countries. In this meeting, Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the political coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran was the guest speaker and several members of the European Parliament took part in the discussions.

Referring to the recent report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, in which Article 7 refers to the 1988 massacre, speakers called on the UN General Assembly meeting, to be held next week in New York, to form an investigation committee into the massacre, and called on the UN Security Council to refer this case to the International Criminal Court so that perpetrators of this crime would be brought to justice.

MEPs emphasized that indifference to this great crime that was unprecedented after the Second World War has made the Iranian regime more emboldened to continue mass executions and violations of international standards. Silence against these crimes if it is for the sake of business is shameful and if it is for the nuclear deal, would be quite naive. The regime gets the message of weakness from silence against this barbarism.

In July for example, 101 prisoners were executed. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said during his opening remarks in the UN Human Rights Council on 11 September 2017: “Since the beginning of the year at least four children have been put to death, and at least 89 other children remain on death row.”

Parliamentarians endorsed the 10-point platform of opposition leader Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, that calls for democracy, secularism, respect for human rights, abolition of the death penalty in Iran, and peace and tranquility in the region. They emphasized that, based on 38 years of experience with this regime, as long as the religious dictatorship rules, oppression in Iran, and terrorism and fundamentalism in the region will remain.

The so-called presidential election in May was quite undemocratic as there were no opposition candidates. During the first four years of the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, more than 3,000 people were executed, making Iran the number state-executioner in the world per capita. He has described executions as rule of law and divine laws.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Iran wrote in her recent report: "Between July and August 1988, thousands of political prisoners, men, women and teen-agers, were reportedly executed pursuant to a fatwa issued by the then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini…

The report points to evidence that reveals “the names of the officials who had carried out and defended the executions, including the current Minister of Justice, a current high court judge, and the head of one of the largest religious foundations in the country and candidate in the May presidential elections.”

It adds: “Recently, these killings have been acknowledged by some at the highest levels of the State. The families of the victims have a right to know the truth about these events and the fate of their loved ones without risking reprisal. They have the right to a remedy, which includes the right to an effective investigation of the facts and public disclosure of the truth; and the right to reparation. The Special Rapporteur therefore calls on the Government to ensure that a thorough and independent investigation into these events is carried out.”

The MEPs regretted Mrs. Mogherini’s silence about the 1988 massacre and generally for her silence about repression of women and human rights violations in Iran. “This silence by our EU High Representative only encourages the mullahs to continue their crimes in Iran. This is very bad for the reputation of Europe.

“We in the European Parliament, who are elected representatives of the people of Europe, we must defend European values which are democracy, human rights, women rights, separation of religion and state”.

MEPs urged European governments and the EU, to condition relations with Islamic Republic of Iran, to a suspension of executions and a clear progress on human rights.

New MEK Secretary General Pledges Regime Change in Iran

Ms. Zahra Merrikhi, swearing in the new MEK Secretary General

By: Keyvan Salami

News Blaze, September 9, 2017 - On Wednesday September 6, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, (PMOI/MEK) held its annual Congress. The Congress elected Ms. Zahra Merrikhi, 58, as its new Secretary General.
The MEK is the main opposition to the Iranian regime, and it has been brutally suppressed by the Iranian regime. Over 120,000 MEK members and supporters have been executed by the regime. 30,000 political prisoners, a majority of them members and supporters of the MEK, were massacred in the summer of 1988 alone. Iran kept a lid on the massacre for three decades.
In this year’s presidential election, a conservative cleric by the name of Ebrahim Raisi, one of the perpetrators of the massacre, was selected as a main candidate, resurfacing the 1988 massacre and forcing regime officials, one after another, to confess about the carnage and their fear of the MEK’s popular support.
Last July in an unprecedented interview, former Iranian intelligence minister Ali Fallahian revealed the mindset behind the 1988 mass execution. In his interview Fallahian explains whoever had any relationship with MEK was condemned to death.
“Imam [Khomeini] said you must execute those who are steadfast in their beliefs,” he said referring to the Iranian regime founder. “We couldn’t let them go and couldn’t keep them in jail. If we had kept them in jail, we would have had a bunch of people over our head telling us don’t keep them in jail. So a 3-man team of judges and ministers was assigned to oversee these cases, release those who were eligible and execute those that were not,” he continued.
In the summer of 1988 Khomeini issued a religious decree calling for the massacre.
“Whoever at any stage continues to belong to the (PMOI/MEK) must be executed. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately! … Those who are in prisons throughout the country and remain steadfast in their support for the MEK are waging war on God, and are condemned to execution … It is naive to show mercy to those who wage war on God,” the decree reads in part.
A committee of four men was formed to implement the order, and in a matter of a few months, more than 30,000 political prisoners were executed, mostly members and supporters of the MEK.
Last year the revelation of an audio tape and unpublished letters of the late Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, former successor to Khomeini, shed new light on dimensions of this grave crime. Pregnant women and girls as young as 14 and 15 years old were among those executed, Mr. Montazeri wrote.
Despite the brutal crackdown, during more than three decades, the MEK has managed to survive and grow, and it enjoys vast popular support among Iranians inside and outside of the country. Its annual gathering assembles over 100,000 Iranians from all over the world and millions watch the event inside Iran.
This year’s congress was important, because the new Secretary General was elected.
“Today, the PMOI, with the help of the Iranian people, is prepared as never before to overthrow the clerical regime,” Ms. Merrikhi the new elected Secretary General said. Ms. Merrikhi also introduced Narges Azodanlou, 36, Rabi’eh Mofidi, 35, and Nasrin Massih, 39, as new deputies to the Secretary General.

 

PMOI Congress on the 52nd founding anniversary of the MEK.

According to a PMOI statement, the new elected Secretary General became acquainted with the PMOI during the 1979 anti-Monarchic Revolution and joined the PMOI after the revolution. She was soon appointed head of the women’s section in Qa’emshahr, in Northern Province of Iran, and later became a member of the editorial board of the PMOI publication in Mazandaran. She was transferred to Tehran in 1981 and acted as liaison between the PMOI and its branches in the forests of northern Iran. In 1984, she moved to PMOI bases in the border region with Iraq, and a year later became a member of the Central Council. Her younger brother, Ali Merrikhi, was killed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in 1988.
The statement adds that Ms. Merrikhi oversaw PMOI branches in Scandinavia and Germany for some time. In 1991, she became a member of the Executive Committee and was later appointed head of MEK’s Radio and television network, she was also in charge of the MEK publication, Mojahed newspaper.
In 1992 she became a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) the coalition of different opposition groups and individuals, of which MEK is the largest. She was appointed Chairwoman of the Public Affairs Committee of the NCRI. Since 2003 she had been the coordinator of the offices of Mrs. Rajavi, the President elect of Iranian resistance. She also was the Vice-president of the PMOI’s Central Council since 2004.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to skip UN General Assembly amid Rohingya crisis

Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the 71st United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, New York, US September 

Reuters, YangonWednesday, 13 September 2017 -
Myanmar’s national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, facing outrage over ethnic violence that has forced about 370,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh, will not attend the upcoming UN General Assembly session in New York, a party spokesman said on Wednesday.

The crisis over the security forces’ fierce response to a series of Rohingya militant attacks is the biggest problem Suu Kyi has faced since becoming Myanmar’s leader last year. Critics have called for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Nobel peace prize for failing to do more to halt the strife.

In her first address to the UN General Assembly as a national leader in September last year, Suu Kyi defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis over treatment of the Muslim minority. This year, her party spokesman said she would not be attending, although he said he was unsure why.

Muslim Rohingyas at a camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine state.

“She’s never afraid of facing criticism or confronting problems. Perhaps she’s got more pressing matters here to deal with,” Aung Shin, the spokesman, told Reuters.

International pressure has been growing on Myanmar to end the violence in the western state of Rakhine that began on Aug. 25 when Rohingya militants attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp. The attacks triggered a sweeping military counter-offensive that refugees say is aimed at pushing Rohingya out of Myanmar.

Reports from refugees and rights groups paint a picture of widespread attacks on Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine by the security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who have put numerous Muslim villages to the torch.

Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive food distributed by local organizations in Kutupalong.

But Myanmar authorities have denied that the security forces, or Buddhist civilians, have been setting the fires, instead blaming the insurgents. Nearly 30,000 Buddhist villagers have also been displaced, they say.

The Trump administration has called for protection of civilians, and Bangladesh says all of the refugees will have to go home and it has called for safe zones to be created in Myanmar to enable them to do so.

But China, which competes with the United States for influence in the Southeast Asian nation, said on Tuesday it backed Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard “development and stability”.

The military, which ruled with an iron fist for almost 50 years until it began a transition to democracy in 2011, retains important political powers and is in full control of security. Suu Kyi has no say over those matters.

The UN Security Council is to meet on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time since the latest crisis erupted. British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said he hoped there would be a public statement agreed by the council.

After Her Election as PMOI/MEK Secretary General, Zahra Merrikhi Pledges to Bring Freedom to Iran

Maryam Rajavi: This election will break the spell of repression and heralds the overthrow of the mullahs’ religious fascism

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, PMOI, (the Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK) held its annual Congress simultaneously in Tirana and five other countries. On the PMOI’s 52nd anniversary, the Congress elected Ms. Zahra Merrikhi as its new Secretary General. Ms. Zohreh Akhyani, the Secretary General since 2011, chaired the Congress.

According to the PMOI’s bylaws, the Secretary General is elected to a renewable term of two years. The election is held in three phases. In the first phase, members of the PMOI Central Council, and in the second the organization’s officials and cadres in different departments, cast their votes in secret ballots. In the third phase, at the PMOI Congress, all members vote by raising their hands.

In the first phase, on August 20, 2017, Ms. Merrikhi was elected from among 12 candidates by a majority of the Central Council members. The four leading candidates were put on the ballot for the second phase, which was held on September 3, 2017. Ms. Merrikhi received a majority of the votes cast in ten different PMOI centers. In the final phase, during the PMOI Congress, Ms. Merrikhi was unanimously elected Secretary General.

Previously, Ms. Merrikhi was coordinator for the offices of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and Vice-President of the PMOI’s Central Council.

Born in 1959 in the city of Qa’emshahr in the northern Province of Mazandaran, Ms. Merrikhi became acquainted with the PMOI during the 1979 anti-Monarchic Revolution and joined the PMOI after the Shah’s overthrow. She was soon appointed head of the women’s section in Qa’emshahr, and later became a member of the editorial board of the PMOI publication in Mazandaran, called Talavang.

In 1981, she was transferred to Tehran and acted as liaison between the PMOI and its branches in the forests of northern Iran. In 1984, she moved to PMOI bases in the border region with Iraq, and a year later became a member of the Central Council.

Her younger brother, Ali Merrikhi, was murdered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in 1988.

Ms. Merrikhi oversaw PMOI branches in Scandinavia and Germany for some time. In 1991, she became a member of the Executive Committee and was later appointed head of Radio Mojahed, Simay-e Moghavemat (the Iranian Resistance’s television network) and the publication Mojahed.

She became a member of the NCRI in 1992 and was appointed Chairwoman of the Public Affairs Committee.

Ms. Merrikhi had been the coordinator of the offices of Mrs. Rajavii since 2003 and the Vice-president of the PMOI’s Central Council since 2004.

Following her election as Secretary General, Mrs. Merrikhi was sworn in, placing her hand on the Holy Quran and paying her respects to the Iranian flag and PMOI emblem. She pledged to remain faithful to the enormous responsibilities with which she has been entrusted. Ms. Merrikhi vowed to devote all her abilities and those of the PMOI as a national treasure of the Iranian people, to establish freedom and democracy in Iran.

The new Secretary General expressed her appreciation for the efforts of her predecessor, Ms. Akhyani, and Ms. Mojgan Parsai, the President of the PMOI’s Central Council. She lauded their efforts and those of other PMOI officials over the past 14 years, during one of the most dangerous and tortuous periods of the Organizations history in camps Ashraf and Liberty.

“Today, the PMOI, with the help of the Iranian people, is prepared as never before to overthrow the clerical regime,” Ms. Merrikhi said, adding that the PMOI has now 18 co-Secretaries General (including seven former Secretaries General). Ms. Merrikhi also introduced Narges Azodanlou, 36, Rabi’eh Mofidi, 35, and Nasrin Massih, 39, as new deputies to the Secretary General.

In congratulating the election of Ms. Merrikhi as the new PMOI Secretary General, Mrs. Rajavi described it as a brilliant election, embodying the height of democracy, cohesion, and growth in the PMOI. It heralds the breaking of the spell of repression which will lead to the overthrow of the religious fascism ruling Iran, she added.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran
September 6, 2017