Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, July 16, 2020—Tomorrow will mark the annual meeting of the Iranian Resistance, titled, “Free Iran 2020 Global Summit: Iran Rising Up for Freedom.” Every year, tens of thousands of Iranians from around the globe attend the rally to express their support for the cause of freedom in Iran and their support for the main Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/ MEK).
This year’s Free Iran event will be held online, with attendants joining from 30,000 locations, including in Iran and 100 countries around the world. Also joining the event will be 1,000 renowned politicians, dignitaries, human rights activists, and parliamentarians from the US and Europe.
The free Iran rally traditionally was held in Paris from 2004 to 2018. In June 2019, for the first time the “Free Iran 2019 event” was organized in Ashraf 3 in Albania, home to more than 3,000 members of the MEK. Ashraf 3 will also be a key venue for the Free Iran 2020 rally.
Among distinguished panel of global influential leaders from across the globe who will attend the online Free Iran 2020 event are:
Rudy Giuliani, Former Mayor of New York; Joseph Lieberman, Former US Senator; Tom Ridge, first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005; Robert Joseph, Former US Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation; Patrick Kennedy, Member of the US House of Representatives (1995-2011); Robert Torricelli, US Senator from New Jersey (1997-2003); Rama Yade, French Secretary of Human Rights (2007 to 2009); Giulio Terzi, Former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Hoda Abdel Nasser, writer, professor, and daughter of late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser; Dr. Bassam Al-Omoush, Former Jordanian Minister of Administrative Development; Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2002–2007); John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs (2011 to 2015); Ingrid Betancourt, Former Senator and Anti-Corruption Activist; Lincoln Bloomfield, Former US Special Envoy and Assistant Secretary of State; Linda Chavez, Former White House Director of Public Liaison; Louis Freeh, Director of the FBI (1993-2001); Sid Ahmed Ghozali, Former Prime Minister of Algeria; and Gilbert Mitterrand, President of France Liberté.
This year’s Free Iran gathering takes place against the backdrop of several very notable events happening in Iran and across the globe. All these developments make this year’s event even more essential to Iran’s freedom and democracy movement.
In November 2019, a sudden increase in the price of gasoline triggered nationwide protests that spread to nearly 200 cities and rocked the very foundations of the regime. The Iranian society called for the overthrow of the corrupt regime. The Iranian regime responded by unleashing its security forces, brutally killing more than 1,500 protesters and arresting thousands of others. The world witnessed in November 2019 nationwide uprising of the Iranian people their choice and desire for regime change.
At the same time the regime faces an economic deadlock which has resulted in the significant growth of the poverty line in Tehran and other parts of the country. Absolute poverty, the inability to meet the minimum standard of living, and the lack of access to living standards in society, as many experts say, are the result of mismanagement and wrong economic policies. This is a big issue that has resulted in the expansion of low-income classes.
What added to this crisis was the novel coronavirus outbreak that until now has claimed the lives of more than 71,300 Iranians. Regime President Hassan Rouhani has described year 2020 as the most difficult year for Iran.
This national disaster was preventable but came to pass and got worse due to the regime’s criminal secrecy, not imposing quarantines on cities, a policy based on fake statistics, and the prioritization of regime security above people’s lives.
The regime is also at an impasse on the international front. Following four decades of terrorism and blackmail as the cornerstones of its foreign policy, the mullahs’ regime is now recognized as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Further highlighting the regime’s desperate situation is a sudden increase in repressive measures. In the past weeks, the regime has resorted to arresting activists and executing political prisoners.
Therefore the “Free Iran 2020 Global Summit” will echo the message that the unyielding demand of the Iranian people is the overthrow of the corrupt and criminal regime of the mullahs and the establishment of freedom and democracy in Iran.
