By Heshmat Alavi

Paris — A vast convention hall located north of Paris was the scene of a massive Iranian Diaspora gathering who voiced their demand for a better future through regime change in Tehran.

Hundreds of dignitaries from the Arab World, United States and Europe stood alongside the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its President Maryam Rajavi in condemning Tehran’s meddling throughout the Middle East as the main obstacle to establish peace and security in at least four regional states.

Saturday’s keynote speaker was Rajavi, who called on the international community to recognize the NCRI as the voice representing the Iranian people, evict Iran from the Middle East end the appeasement policy and welcome a strong strategy of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people’s call for regime change.

Regional support

“The Iranian people are the first victims of Khomeini’s dictatorship,” said Turki Al-Faisal. “Your effort in challenging this regime is legitimate and your resistance for the liberation of the Iranian people of all ethnicities, including Arabs, Kurds, Balochis, Turks and Fars of the mullahs’ evil, as Mrs. Rajavi said, is a legitimate struggle.”

In a sign of a united Middle East position in the face of Iran’s belligerence, numerous Arab delegations including many former and current officials from more than a dozen regional countries participated in the convention.

In their colorful array of speeches these representatives of hundreds of millions of people who have suffered from the mullahs’ support for terrorism placed their fists down saying enough is enough. Following four decades of endless destruction and misery brewed by Tehran’s mullahs across the region, these nations are more than ever supporting the NCRI platform advocating regime change.

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi spearheaded Saturday’s convention.

“Our people want a constitution based on freedom, democracy and equality. The time has come for the international community to heed the demands of the people of Iran,” she said.

Rajavi shed light on a subject less taken into consideration about Iran, being the very fact that the roots of Tehran’s foreign wars are found in its domestic crises.

“Out of the past 38 years, the mullahs were engaged in war with Iraq for eight years, have been at war with the people of Syria for six years, and have pursued confrontation with the international community for more than ten years to build an atomic bomb. The Iranian Resistance is proud that it has stood up to the mullahs’ religious fascism in all these three spheres: It has been the flag-bearer of peace and freedom; it has been a vanguard in defending the people of Syria, and it has led the way for a non-nuclear Iran,” Rajavi added.

“We have welcomed the statements made at the Arab, Islamic, American Summit in Riyadh against the Iranian regime’s terrorist and destabilizing activities. Nevertheless, we emphasize that the ultimate solution to the crisis in the region and confronting groups like ISIS, is the overthrow of the Iranian regime by the Iranian people and Resistance,” she continued.

Placing forward the most important changes needed, Rajavi stated people’s demands in their struggle for freedom and democracy.

1) The international community must recognize the NCRI as the sole legitimate voice representing Iranian people.

2) Bringing a lasting end to the highly-flawed policy of engagement and appeasement vis-à-vis Tehran.

3) Establishing a strong position of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people’s will of seeking an end to the mullahs’ rule through regime change.

Fierce quarrel

Politicians and high-profile figures from the United States and Europe gave more weight to a complementary message of this conference: the mullahs do not represent the Iranian people and it is high time for the international community to acknowledge this nation’s true demand for regime change.

Representing a rare bipartisan initiative in Washington, American dignitaries including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Joseph Lieberman, Mayor Rudi Giuliani, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Governor Ed Rendell and a substantial slate of dozens of other political and military officials joined the ranks of many others voicing their support.

“You, I, my government and your leadership, we see Iran in exactly the same way. The regime is evil and it must go. #FreeIran,” said Mayor Giuliani.

“I think it’s fair to say that the Trump administration has much fewer illusions about the nature of the Iranian dictatorship. I think it’s fair to say that Secretary of Defense Mattis in his years in the Central Command understands exactly who the Iranian dictatorship is...I think it’s fair to say that the National Security Advisor, General McMaster, in his years of service in the Middle East, knows exactly who the Iranian dictatorship is,” said former US presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Iran has been suffering a series of setbacks following last month’s Riyadh Summit. Couple that with the Trump administration continuing to evaluate its comprehensive Iran policy, the mullahs in Tehran have every reason to be extremely concerned about how the bleak the future is. — Al Arabiya English