On July 13, 2019, dignitaries from dozens of countries across the world attended the main event of the Free Iran 2019 international conference. The conference was part of the five-day Free Iran 2019 series of conferences at the main headquarters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Ashraf 3, Albania. Several dignitaries, political and human rights activists delivered speeches, issuing remarks about the struggles of the Iranian people and their resistance movement for freedom in their country.
The following are key remarks by former Member of U.S. Congress Ted Poe at the Ashraf 3 conference.
Ted Poe:
Thank you very much. I am Ted Poe from the state of Texas and a former member of the United States Congress. A few years ago, when I was serving on the foreign affairs committee, Dana Rohrbacher was chairman of the European subcommittee, we went to Iraq. And the reason we went to Iraq was to go to Camp Ashraf and see the atrocities that were taking place. Because the Iraqi government and the Iranian government had denied those atrocities were taking place. We came to visit you. And when we got to Iraq, and we talked to Maliki, he got irate. He said, “You cannot go to Camp Ashraf. You are forbidden to go to Camp Ashraf.” In fact, he got so mad that he ordered us out of his country. We couldn’t believe it. We were evicted from Iraq because we wanted to see you. But now, we are here. And we do get to see you. Thank you for letting us visit with you, and thank you for your endurance over all of these years.
You know, the cynics, the critics, always have been criticizing you. The Ayatollah, the mullahs, they said you would never last in Camp Ashraf 1, but you did, and you made that a paradise in the desert for freedom. And then they said you would not last in Camp Liberty, which was a dungeon, but you made it another parasite for freedom. And they said you would never be able to leave and yet because of our Albanian friends you were allowed to come to Camp Ashraf 3 and make it a paradise in the desert. Well, there’s going to be a Camp Ashraf 4, and I hope that will be the last one. Because it’s going to be in Tehran where all of us will be together.
First of all, it was a mistake for the United States ever to put the MEK on the terrorist list. But I filed legislation, House Resolution 60, to delist the MEK, joined by Democrats and Republicans on the Foreign Affairs committee. It was filed. Not long after, because of a lawsuit filed by the MEK, a federal judge in the United States ordered the State Department to delist the MEK, and the MEK is delisted, as it should be. It's not a terrorist organization. And how ironic is it that the MEK now is not on the terrorist list but the Iranian government and the IRGC, they are both terrorist organizations, both of them. Thank you.
And let me say this about Madame [Maryam] Rajavi. When she testified and made the case for freedom for Iran, I was impressed, and others were impressed. there is nothing more powerful than a woman that has made up her mind." And that woman is Madame [Maryam] Rajavi. She has made up her mind for freedom for all y’all.
The regime in Tehran is a cancer. It is not going to go away on its own. You must fight it. We must all fight it. The world will be safer, the people of Iran will be safer.
And as Madame [Maryam] Rajavi has said in the past, when you have a serpent, a snake, you must cut off the head of the snake. And I’m here to tell you that the lion with the sword is going to cut off the head of the serpent so that there will be freedom in Tehran. Some things are worth living for, and some things are worth dying for, and I can think of no greater cause for any of us than to live and die, if necessary, for freedom. And make sure that we sing the song that the mullahs must go, Azadi, Azadi, Azadi. Freedom, freedom. Thank you very much. God bless you.