Massoud Rajavi welcomes designation of IRGC – Iraqi news agency

Thursday, 08 November 2007

NCRI - The Iraqi news agency INA published on November 3, 2007, a report on the message of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, about the terrorist designation of the Iranian regime's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by the United States. Here is the translation of the INA report:

Iraqi News Agency, 3-11-2007

Massoud Rajavi welcomes designation of IRGC as a necessary prelude to policy of changing the religious fascism ruling Iran

In a message to the Iranian people, aired on the opposition satellite channel, Iran National Television (INTV), and entitled, "War or peace with the religious fascism ruling Iran?," the Iranian Resistance's leader Massoud Rajavi strongly welcomed the inclusion of the Ministry of Defense, the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Qods (Jerusalem) Force, as well as officials and banks that support and finance them on the list of "Nuclear Proliferators of Weapons of Mass Destruction (NPWMD)" and the terrorist list. Noting that this designation had more wide-ranging implications than the United Nations Security Council resolutions, Mr. Rajavi said the decision was a serious turning point for the United States as she distances herself from the religious fascism ruling Iran and in standing with the Iranian people.

He added, acknowledgement of the role and conduct of the IRGC - as the foundational pillar and safeguard of the velayat-e faqih regime - by the U.S. is indicative of an end to the era of appeasement and toleration of the ruling theocracy and a necessary prelude for a policy of regime change in Iran. The move blocks the path of the mullahs' expansionism and aggression in the Middle East region and removes the obstacles to democratic change in Iran, the Iranian Resistance's leader said.

Underscoring the need for regime change in Iran, Mr. Rajavi added: By way of experience, in the past three decades, the international community has run the risk of adopting the policy of appeasement, conciliation and "no war" vis-à-vis the mullahs' regime, which would ultimately and inevitably drag the world into a war. Like Hitler, this belligerent regime is preparing for war without sparing any resources, because it can only survive through expansion, war, crisis and acquiring nuclear weapons. Making peace and compromising with Hitler led to the Second World War. The recognition of the rights of the Iranian people to sovereignty and resistance against religious dictatorship can avert what was described as the “Third World War” by President Bush.

The Iranian Resistance's leader emphasized: The Iranian people and their Resistance have the capacity, qualification and capability to change the regime in Iran. Even war and air strikes on IRGC centers and nuclear sites cannot change this equation.

Mr. Rajavi said: The theocracy ruling Iran, as stipulated in its Constitution, is based on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih (absolute supremacy of clerical rule). But the Iranian people and Resistance demand freedom, popular sovereignty and free choice. Whoever supports freedom and democracy in Iran should support overthrowing the velayat-e faqih regime and defend the right of the Iranian people to sovereignty.

For this reason, Mr. Rajavi said, on the one side, there are those who support popular sovereignty and an end to religious dictatorship. On the other side, there are those who seek to preserve, buy peace and appease the ruling theocracy in Iran. They lose no opportunity to warn of the dangers and consequences of going to war with the mullahs' regime. Yet they never mention the dangers and implications of "no war" and the continued rule of this regime which will inevitably lead to horrific wars. Their interests are intertwined with the survival of this regime. They fear its overthrow because they are bound to lose much. For them, the overthrow of the religious fascism ruling Iran is a red line.

The Iranian Resistance's leader referred to the "misappropriation" of the global peace movement by the mullahs, adding that they seek to transform it into a movement for peace with and appeasement of the religious dictatorship ruling Iran. He stressed: The mullahs owe their existence to an eight-year war with Iraq, and openly boast that they were the "first victor" of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. While their official mantra was "war, war until victory" and "war until the world is rid of evil," and while they fed vast amount of disinformation to incite the recent war in Iraq, they are ironically now keen to take advantage of the peace movement, for which humanity legitimately and urgently yearns, so that they could have further opportunity to continue suppression and public hangings at home and export terrorism and religious fascism abroad.

Mr. Rajavi added: It is common knowledge that it is the Iranian regime which plants Explosively-Formed Projectiles (EFPs), runs secret prisons and torture chambers and incites sectarian war in Iraq. The partitioning of Palestine is the mullahs' model for southern Iraq. The Iranian regime poured some $14 billion into Lebanon during the 33-day war in summer 2006. On November 4, 1986, the President-to-be, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the blow the U.S. received in Lebanon "is attributed to us and it should be." Five years later, on July 20, 1991, the former Revolutionary Guards Corps Minister Mohsen Rafiqdoust admitted, "The TNT and ideology (for the Beirut bombing of the Marine barracks) were sent there from Iran." And today, from Somalia to Afghanistan, wherever there is war, the mullahs' regime and its Revolutionary Guards are ever present and beating the drums of war.

Mr. Rajavi underscored: The overthrow of the mullahs' regime is indispensable to bringing peace to the Middle East region. Today, this regime maintains its grip on power through daily repression and executions. On August 28, 2007, its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared a "readiness to fill the great power vacuum" in the region. And, a few weeks later, he told the United Nations General Assembly, "I officially declare that the era of post-Second World War relationships has ended. Palestine and Iraq will be cleared of the occupiers and the people of Europe and America will be free of the pressures of the Zionists."

The Iranian Resistance's leader concluded: The mullahs' decadent regime has reached a dead-end with no way forward or back. It must either retreat successively, which will ultimately lead it to lose its grip on power inside Iran, paving the way for a popular uprising; or hoping that a ground war is impossible, it will resort to more militarism as well as greater suppression and internal purges. In that case, it should be prepared to face the consequences of such a policy. Remote as the chance of this may be, however, we wish the regime would retreat as soon as possible, in which case we would have to pay a smaller price. The Iranian people will, however, earn their freedom whatever the cost may be.

The People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran – Ashraf
November 3, 2007