Statement by American Dignitaries to the July 2022 Rally

Time to Unite

We, the undersigned Americans, believe that now is the time for all Iranian opposition groups who are suffering at the hands of the theocratic regime to come together in a united front. While there will always be differences in cultures, beliefs, and heritage, we know from the experience of the American revolution that when people put aside their temporary differences and work together the cause of liberty and justice prevails.

Iran is a country of diversity. Whether of Persian, Azari, Kurdish, Luri, Turkmen, Arab, Baloch, all are citizens of Iran. You deserve far better than the tyranny you have endured for generations. Twice in the past century you have had democracy stripped from you, in 1953 by the Shah and in 1979 by the religious extremists who still control Tehran.

These religious extremists will eventually fall from power, as do all brutal oppressors. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will go the way of Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin. The common goal should be to hasten that day of reckoning and national liberation.

Within Iran, the people are ensuring that this day is drawing ever closer, through demonstrations, strikes, and organized challenges against the ruling mullahs.

Internationally, the regime is weaker than ever before. It is rapidly losing ground within the region. The citizens of Lebanon have retaken control of their Parliament, voting out the majority of Iran’s proxy organization, Hezbollah. With Vladimir Putin having to pull Russian troops out of Syria to fight his immoral war in Ukraine, Bashir Assad is losing the power of his principal protector. Iran lacks the ability to backfill Russian forces being extracted from Syria.

Through the Abraham Accords and other peace initiatives, many Arab countries are pursuing peaceful co-existence with Israel. Pro-Tehran parliamentarians in Iraq recently passed legislation declaring any Iraqi who even speaks of normalization with Israel to be guilty of a crime punishable by death; this is seen by the Iraqi people as evidence of the desperation of Iran. Both Sunni and Shia citizens in Iraq are taking to the streets demanding an end of Iranian meddling.

International sanctions have also limited Iran’s continuing ability to fund acts of global terrorism. The elimination of Quds Force Commander General Qassim Suleimani has also impacted Iran’s ability to plan and conduct foreign terrorist activities.

When agents from Section 312 of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) attempted to blow up the National Council of Resistance to Iran conference in 2018, its operations were thwarted and exposed. The powerful explosive device, designed and tested in Iran before being carried on a commercial flight from Tehran to Vienna, was neutralized, and all members of the terrorist cell captured by elite law enforcement agencies of three European governments. The MOIS supervisor, abusing the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic privileges, was apprehended along with his green notebook containing specific information about numerous other terrorist cells operating inside Europe. This was one of two foiled Iranian mass-casualty bombing attempts in Europe.

Long overdue, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is now included on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. In April of 2019, shortly before the State Department’s FTO designation, the Department of Defense released a formerly classified report stating the deaths of 608 American service-members in Iraq were directly attributed to the IRGC.

Efforts to resuscitate the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) have been plagued by some hard realities. Tehran never complied with the conditions of the original agreement. It is unwise for anyone to believe a second agreement will curtail Iran, the number-one state exporter of terrorism, from continuing its quest for nuclear weapons. The religious extremist government of Iran must never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.

The change of government in Iran must come from the Iranian people themselves. When the regime along with its core institutions starts to come apart, it will fall quickly, as did the Shah’s government. In the early 1990s, the communist governments of eastern Europe also fell quickly. Most became thriving democracies because their citizens worked together and built nations centered on the people. They were ready for self-government when they cast off the chains of tyranny.

In anticipation of the theocratic regime collapsing, the people must organize themselves into a unified effort so that the opposition can be far stronger. By themselves, powdered stone, sand, and water are without form. When properly brought together, they can form unbreakable cement structures. History testifies to the thousands of years that the ancestors of today’s Iranian people built great and progressive societies. Their unbreakable resolve lives in you today.

No one group of people should claim to have all the answers. No one dissident group should aspire to absolute power in Iran. The goal should be to strive for true democracy for all citizens of Iran, whether of Persian, Azari, Kurdish, Luri, Turkmen, Arab, Baloch, or other background.

The future belongs to the Iranian people, not their cruel and corrupt oppressors. It’s time for the great Iranian nation, all of them patriotic Iranians, to start coming together, uniting behind their common cause, and developing those structures that will prepare the transition to a peaceful, democratic, and representative Iran of the future.

©2022 Wes Martin