Wednesday, 12 January 2011 00:00

Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen members of Senate,
Dear friends,
I would like to offer my utmost gratitude to you all for the declaration by a majority in the French Senate.
In this declaration, you have focused your attention at the heart of the Iranian issue, i.e., the status of Camp Ashraf, home to 3,400 Iranian opposition members.
Ashraf is a symbol of perseverance and resistance for freedom and is an inspiration to the Iranian people.
The residents of Ashraf are playing the same role for Iran, which the partisans played for France during the Nazi occupation.
Better than anyone else, the Iranian regime is aware of the role Ashraf is playing in directing the opposition to the mullahs. It is therefore focused on destroying Camp Ashraf in order to destroy the Iranian Resistance movement.
Two weeks ago, Ali Saremi, 63, was executed on the charge of Moharebeh (waging war on God), for visiting his son in Ashraf and for his affiliation with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
Six other prisoners are on death row on the same charge.
Five days ago, following the visit by the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister to Iraq and his meeting the Iraqi Prime Minister, a number of the regime’s operatives in Iraq, enjoying the cooperation of Iraqi forces, gathered outside Ashraf with the aim of attacking the Camp.
 They hurled Cocktail Molotovs and rocks at the residents, wounding 176, including 91 women. Video from the scene shows that Iraqi forces were involved in that attack.
Last month, an Ashraf cancer patient lost his life because the Committee to Suppress Ashraf in the Prime Minister’s Office prevented him from visiting specialist doctors in a timely fashion.  Several other patients suffer from serious medical conditions. 
Since nearly a year ago, the Iranian regime has dispatched a number of its operative to the gates of Ashraf to step up pressure against the residents of Ashraf.  Through 180 powerful loudspeakers, they have been threatening the residents with death and the destruction of the camp round-the-clock.
This is a continuous form of torture about which the international community must not remain silent.
Last week, Spain’s national court ruled that the atrocities against Camp Ashraf controverted the Fourth Geneva Convention and began to investigate them in the framework of crime against the international community. As a first step, the court summoned the commander of the assault on Ashraf, which led to the death of 11 and the wounding of hundreds more in July 2009.
Dr. Garcés will provide more details on this. By representing the residents of Ashraf, he has provided invaluable service to the Iranian people. But, in my view, what Spain did is not exclusive to that country. All democratic countries, including France, a signatory to the Geneva Convention, carry the same burden.
As a cradle of human rights, France cannot close its eyes to such atrocities. Ashraf is one of the most sensitive human rights cases in the world today. Owing to its international responsibilities, France must play a major role in resolving this matter.
A majority in the French National Assembly and in the Senate as well as more than 5,000 French mayors have spoken to the need to protect the residents of Ashraf by the international community, especially through the United Nations. The Government of France must heed the call of its elected representatives and undertake practical steps in this respect. It is particularly imperative that France urges the Iraqi government to end the siege on Ashraf.
Today, I call on you to initiate an international campaign to end the pain and suffering as well as the psychological torture inflicted upon the residents of Ashraf by the Iranian regime’s proxies in Iraq.
I call on you to try to get the Committee for the Suppression of Ashraf in the Prime Minister’s Office abolished. This committee is responsible for all these atrocities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Iran is on the verge of a seismic change. Through their uprisings last year, the Iranian people demonstrated that they want the overthrow of this regime, which is facing increasing problems at home. For this reason, it is trying to prevent change by stepping up repression inside Iran and destroying that which is the heart of the resistance movement, namely Ashraf.
 The export of terrorism and fundamentalism and the pursuit of nuclear weapons are the other levers the regime is using to counteract its internal instability.
Regrettably, the West’s policy of appeasement, epitomized by the terror label against the principle resistance movement, allowed the regime to advance their goals.
Why is Islamic fundamentalism spreading? Why has terrorism reached Africa?
It is because the mullahs’ regime, as the epicenter of terrorism and fundamentalism, has been given free reins. The more concessions the fundamentalists get, the more they will advance.
Here, I would like to offer my condolences and those of the Iranian Resistance to the people of France and the families of the two young men who fell victim to terrorism in Africa.

Dear Friends,
The United Kingdom and the European Union followed the well-reasoned and definitive judgments of their courts and delisted the PMOI. The German government formally retracted this allegation. A Federal Appeals Court ruled in PMOI’s favor and the US Congress also called for the delisting.
It is therefore necessary that the elected representatives of the people of France call on the United States to remove the terror label from the PMOI.
Let me ask also why is an empty dossier against the Iranian Resistance in France still continuing? It is time that this dossier, a concession to the mullahs, is shelved.
The West’s misguided policy has allowed the religious dictatorship ruling Iran to emerge as the most dangerous threat to global peace and security.
Next week, nuclear talks with Tehran will resume. Experience has shown that negotiations with the mullahs’ regime will bear no fruit, other than giving them the opportunity to obtain nuclear weapons.
The time has come for adopting a decisive policy towards this regime. The mullahs’ are incapable of reform. The only solution is democratic change by the Iranian people and Resistance. For this reason, support for the Iranian people’s yearning for change and for the just Resistance for freedom is at the heart of a correct policy towards Iran.
The resistance movement seeks a democratic Iran based on the separation of church and state, complete gender equality, elimination of all forms of discrimination against religious minorities, respect for international conventions, and abolition of death penalty and the mullahs’ inhuman Sharia laws. We want an Iran free of nuclear weapons that seeks amicable relations with all countries around the world.
Change in Iran is on the way and is within reach. To this end, I once again call upon you to support the strategic pillar of the battle for freedom in Iran: Ashraf.
Thank you all very much.