Maryam Rajavi: “Iran Beyond War, the Power of the People”

The international conference titled “Iran: Beyond War, Human Rights, and People’s Power as the Solution” convened in Rome, the capital of Italy. The event featured an address by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, alongside former prime ministers and cabinet ministers, senators, parliamentarians, and prominent political and human rights figures from around the world.
The conference was moderated by Antonio Stango, President of the Italian Federation for Human Rights.
The distinguished speakers included:
• Paolo Gentiloni – Prime Minister of Italy (2016–2018) and European Commissioner for Economy (2019–2024)
• Carlo Cottarelli – Designated Prime Minister of Italy (2018) and Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (2008–2013)
• Guy Verhofstadt – Prime Minister of Belgium (1999–2008)
• Senator Giulio Terzi – Chairman of the European Union Policies Committee in the Italian Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2011–2013)
• Dr. Liam Fox – Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom (2010–2011), Secretary of State for International Trade (2016–2019), and Chairman of the Conservative Party (2003–2005)
• Ambassador Joachim Rücker – President of the United Nations Human Rights Council (2015), Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN Human Rights Council (2014–2016), and Ambassador of Germany to Sweden (2008–2011)
• Dr. Hans-Ulrich Seidt – Ambassador of Germany to Afghanistan and South Korea (2005–2012) and Inspector General of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany (2014–2017)

At the conference, the speakers strongly condemned the policy of suppression, widespread human rights violations, and the escalating wave of executions in Iran, underscoring the need to support the Iranian people’s aspiration for freedom and the establishment of a democratic republic. They called for an end to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of these crimes and urged the adoption of a decisive policy toward the Iranian regime.
In her address, Maryam Rajavi outlined the mounting crises and deadlocks facing the ruling regime in Iran, stating:

Maryam Rajavi: Resistance to Reclaim the Right to Popular Sovereignty

Distinguished guests, esteemed colleagues and friends,
It is a great pleasure to be with you today. This conference provides a vital forum to address the question of Iran—an issue that has, in recent months, returned to the center of global attention.

Since the 1979 revolution overthrew the Shah through a genuine popular uprising, only to have its leadership hijacked by Khomeini, the developments surrounding Iran over the past 48 years have consistently had profound and far-reaching impacts on both regional and global affairs.

Among these defining events, we have witnessed:
• The hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy;
• The eight-year war with Iraq;
• The rise of a nationwide resistance and its relentless confrontation with clerical despotism;
• The horrific massacres and systematic executions of political prisoners;
• The regime’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons;
• Its destructive interventions across the Middle East;
• And its campaigns of transnational terrorism, reaching even into the heart of Europe, including the brutal assassination of Mohammad Hossein Naqdi, the representative of the National Council of Resistance, right on the streets of Rome. We honor and cherish his enduring memory.

What is the Solution to the Iranian Crisis?

Over the past year, the eruption of two wars, alongside the great uprising of January, and the horrific slaughter of thousands of young people during those protests, have turned the world’s gaze toward Iran more than ever before. It has brought a pivotal question to the table: What is the solution? How do we resolve this enduring, chronic challenge that threatens regional and global security while holding the Iranian people hostage?

This is the subject I wish to address briefly.
Without a doubt, the solution lies neither in clinging to the present status quo by preserving this regime, nor in retreating to the past by reviving the deposed dictatorship of the Shah. The true solution lies in looking forward to the establishment of a democratic republic.
Both the current and former regimes foundered on a historical and political dead-end, making their continuation fundamentally impossible.

Historians who have deeply analyzed the political and social trends of the 1970s acknowledge that prior to its overthrow, and despite skyrocketing oil prices the Shah’s dictatorship had already reached a strategic impasse. He then attempted to sustain his rule through increasingly tyrannical means—resorting to systemic torture, mass executions, and forcing a single-party system upon the nation. Yet, he failed.

Today, the state of the clerical regime is laid bare before the eyes of the world. It keeps itself afloat solely by massacring its own dissatisfied citizens and by plunging the country into foreign conflicts. But this, too, is unsustainable.
The conclusion is clear: any form of dictatorship will only perpetuate the catastrophe of the present.
In this regard, it is worth recalling that for four decades, Western policymakers chose to ignore a crucial reality: a regime that is structurally incapable of addressing the needs of its society, that is at war with its own people, and that faces a deeply rooted, permanent resistance, is a regime that must wage foreign wars and export crises beyond its borders simply to prevent its own downfall.

Today, the mullahs are so deeply cornered that they have transformed even the funeral of their leader into a week-long security and political maneuver, desperate to mask the regime’s fragile state and their own internal infighting. To maintain the upper hand in their regional warmongering, they relentlessly pursue their nuclear and missile programs.
The regime’s warmongering, alongside its nuclear and missile ambitions, is merely the flip side of a brutal, anti-human dictatorship. Therefore, no viable solution can be envisioned short of the regime’s ultimate overthrow.

The Force for Change in Iran

The prospect of change in Iran is grounded in objective, undeniable realities. These include:

• An unprecedented socioeconomic chasm between the social classes.
• Chronic poverty alongside deep-seated economic, social, and environmental crises for which the regime has no viable solutions.
• The collapse of the strategic pillars that have guaranteed the regime’s survival for decades.
• Intensifying internal fractures over the very survival of the state.
• And ultimately, the existence of an organized, nationwide resistance dedicated to the regime’s overthrow.
All of these indicators demonstrate that the only viable solution is a path that guarantees the overthrow of this regime, and the only path to that overthrow lies in the organized resistance and uprisings of the Iranian people.

Attributes of a Viable Alternative

Let us now address a pivotal question: What are the essential attributes of a viable alternative—one capable of both toppling the current regime and successfully realizing a democratic transition?

To effect true change in Iran, a movement must possess three fundamental characteristics:

• First, it must possess the unwavering resolve to confront the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the backbone of the clerical dictatorship, and be fully prepared to pay the heavy price of that confrontation.

• Second, it must be deeply rooted within Iranian society itself, possessing a tangible, active force on the ground across Iran’s cities. It must remain entirely independent of foreign governments.

• Third, it must be highly organized, composed of conscious, combative youth who have consciously chosen this struggle and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for it.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and its Resistance Units, embodying these very traits and capabilities, represent the defining catalyst for change in Iran.
In recent years, despite suffocating repression and systematic arrests, these Resistance Units have successfully established their presence in the struggle against the IRGC and the paramilitary Basij, carving out a path for expansion across Iran’s major cities.
During the January 2026 uprising, these units targeted regime centers in 630 distinct operations. Furthermore, on February 23, just five days before the recent conflict, 250 courageous and self-sacrificing fighters launched an operation against Khamenei’s headquarters in the most heavily fortified security zone in the heart of Tehran.

The regime knows from experience that the single greatest threat to its survival is the synergy between popular protests and an organized resistance.

Reclaiming the Right to Popular Sovereignty

We have not sat in idle anticipation, waiting for foreign powers or external governments to bring change to Iran. Instead, we have risen to reclaim what is fundamentally ours: the right to popular sovereignty, and the right of our people to dignity and freedom.
The provisional government announced by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, guided by the principles of peace and freedom, exists solely for this purpose.
It stands to realize the Ten-Point Plan of the Resistance, a vision of a republic built upon the separation of religion and state, gender equality, autonomy for oppressed nationalities, and a non-nuclear Iran.

This vision is what a member of the European Parliament from Italy, Mr. Leoluca Orlando, described as the “Iranian model of democracy.” And I must add this is not a model drafted merely on paper. It is a model forged from the profound suffering and the blood of 100,000 PMOI freedom fighters and combatants who have laid down their lives for the liberation of Iran.

The latest example is the case of a young woman, the 25-year-old Arghavan Fallahi. She spent months in solitary confinement and under torture. Her father is also incarcerated.

We now stand on the eve of the 38th anniversary of the 1988 massacre, which saw the execution of 30,000 political prisoners by decree of Khomeini, the founder of this very regime. More than ninety percent of those victims were members of the PMOI/MEK. Their only “crime,” the sole reason they were sent to the gallows, was their refusal to renounce the PMOI’s stance on freedom for Iran. Today, this very same unyielding spirit is alive, burning bright within our political prisoners and the young generation flocking to this Resistance. Among them was Babak Alipour. Born in 1991 in Amol, a law graduate, Babak was one of eight PMOI members who were sent to the gallows in Ghezel Hesar Prison this past March.

While held in solitary confinement, he managed to send out a message:

“Everything we long for—unconditional freedom, a society free from discrimination, gender equality, and justice—can only be achieved through the overthrow of this regime. There is no other way.”
This is the ultimate testament of a vast generation that has stepped onto the battlefield to rewrite Iran’s destiny. It is this very will to win freedom that will turn the page on this dark chapter of Iranian history.
This is a well-trodden path, one that has manifested the struggle, the resilience, and the sacrifice of multiple generations of Iranians over the past four decades.
In these very days, we also mourn the loss of Maestro Reza Olia, a distinguished and proud artist, and a member of the National Council of Resistance. He was a beacon of devotion to the cause of the Iranian people’s freedom, and a steadfast, tireless defender of the Iranian Resistance in Italy. We pay our deepest tribute to his memory.