Solidarity and sympathy with fellow citizens affected by devastating flash floods -Maryam Rajavi’s speech

Our nation has been overwhelmed and devastated by floods but their spirits to rise up and rebel against the mullahs are high and they remain resolved and determined.

My dear sisters and brothers,
Dear fellow compatriots all across Iran who have been affected by the disastrous flash floods in most provinces, and are suffering under the calamity of the Velayat-e Faqih regime throughout the country.
We have gathered here with your Mojahed children. Every one of them has come from a different city or village, and together they represent the solidarity and unity of the people of Iran as one nation.
We have come together to declare solidarity with our nation who is surrounded by floods, hardships and devastation, and yet remains determined and steadfast against the clerical regime and by doing so has terrified them.
Let us rise up and observe a minute of silence for the national disaster which has overwhelmed our country, for all those who lost their dear lives and those across the country who have lost their homes and properties over the past days.
In this gathering, our thoughts are with each and every one of you, our fellow countrymen and women who have lost your children, youths and relatives in the New Year holidays and afterwards in Turkmen Sahra, Golestan and Mazandaran, in Lorestan, Kohgiluyeh, Chahar Mahal-o Bakhtiari, Khuzestan and Fars.
We are mourning the families in Pol-e Dokhtar who had gone to the rooftops, but were washed away by flash floods and there was no one to hear their cries. We are mourning the defenseless people who lost their dear lives in Shiraz and those who died in other cities and provinces.
I sincerely condole their bereaved families and I want you to know that all members of this Resistance and I share your grief and sorrow.
And we pray for our mournful people who have been besieged by death and destruction, and by pain, poverty and repression.
We pray for Pol-e Dokhtar which was inundated by horrendous flash floods, for Gomishan and Agh Ghala that remain stranded, for the people of Mamoulan in Lorestan who have nothing to eat and no one knows of what happened to their villages.
We pray for the people of Sarpol-e Zahab, victims of earthquake, who have been affected by yet another disaster.
We pray for the deprived people of Ahvaz who have been abandoned in train wagons with no bread or water.
We pray for Shiraz, the city of poems and flowers, whose innocent children in Saadi district are sleeping on bare floor these days, in the cold.
It is truly difficult to choose among the numerous pains and suffering of our people under the evil rule of the mullahs. Thousands of villages and dozens of cities are in jeopardy. Multitudes of displaced families have lost their homes and have no shelter. The entire nation is upset and every Iranian grieves to see and hear those lamenting over their lost homes and livelihood.
Dear God, we pledge to you to liberate our people and our homeland, Iran, from the clutches of the evil mullahs and their anti-human regime.

Our nation has been overwhelmed and devastated by floods but their spirits to rise up and rebel against the mullahs are high and they remain resolved and determined.
In some parts of Golestan Province, people confronted the governor’s damaging decision which led to the drowning of a village, and engaged in armed clashes.
The people of this province did not let the criminal Revolutionary Guard Corps intervene. They confronted the son of Khamenei’s representative in Golestan. And we saw a courageous woman there who daringly protested Rouhani face to face.

Hail to the brave and outspoken people of Mazandaran, Turkmen Sahra and Golestan
And in the oppressed but steadfast Lorestan, the commander of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) admitted that he had barely escaped from the furious people of Pol-e Dokhtar. He lamented, “No government official should dare to go to this city.”
On Wednesday, the people of Pol-e Dokhtar protested the former IRGC Commander, Mohsen Reza’ii, by calling him a villain and a scoundrel.

Yes, Pol-e Dokhtar has been run over by floods but remains defiant and rebellious.
We salute and hail the people of Pol-e Dokhtar and all the people of Lorestan
In Susangerd and Dasht-e Azadegan, people engaged in armed clashes with IRGC mercenaries.
In Khorramshahr, people protested and defied the regime’s attempts to tear down a dam. They thus prevented the water from flowing towards Khorramshahr and Abadan.
Hail to the people of Susangerd, Dasht-e Azadegan, and Khorramshahr, and we salute the people of Khuzestan.

In Shiraz, too, the scenes of defenseless people being deluged by flash floods at Darvazeh Quran has distressed and outraged everyone. We salute the people of Shiraz and hail all the outspoken people of Fars Province.
In Ilam, a large number of cities and villages remain stranded by floods and some of their people face displacement.

Hail to the people of Ilam who have boosted solidarity and empathy among themselves and continue to resist. Hail to the united people of Ilam.
And we salute the people of Chahar Mahal-o Bakhtiari Province whose homes and properties, cities and villages have been drenched in mud and sludge, and ruined by the regime’s vicious corruption, but have not given up. As it has been the case throughout their history, they are determined to resist.
Hail to our fellow citizens in Chahar Mahal-o Bakhtiari
In Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province, too, people are restless and outspoken despite their difficult circumstances and all the hardships.

Hail to the people of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad
And again, we hail the people of Kermanshah Province, the quake-stricken but heroic province that has stood up valiantly against the ruling criminals.
Hail to the people of Kermanshah
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Yes indeed, amid the worst calamities, our people have stood up to the mullahs because they are hopeful for a future without this regime.
They have faith in a prospect which they believe is accessible. They rely on their own uprisings and resistance, and they know that they can rebuild their homes, their cities, and a free and prosperous country.
Our people have experienced their own power in their uprisings and protest movements over the past 15 months. With the willpower of their Mojahed children, our nation has formed their resistance units to put an end to the regime’s rule.

My fellow citizens,
Indeed, why did rain storms inundate our cities and villages with mud and sludge? I would like to highlight two essential factors:
The first factor is the destructive policies and conduct of Khamenei and his criminal Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC has constructed hundreds of dams, dug hundreds of tunnels, and changed the river paths in many places without observing the crucial rules or regulations.
They have also resorted to deforestation and taken over the river banks. So, they have been engaged in destruction or confiscation of properties non-stop and round the clock.
The question is, why has the area of the jungles of the North halved? Why have the wetlands dried up? Why were the river paths filled?

The answer is because Khamenei and the IRGC did all this either to advance their military and security objectives, or to plunder the public properties and reap profits.
Note the condition of the forests in Golestan Province. 47.000 hectares of the best parts of these forests have been seized by the so-called seminary school of Gorgan. 13.000 hectares have been dominated by the 25th Karbala Division, 8.000 hectares are controlled by the IRGC’s so-called Construction Pioneer Institute, and 991.000 hectares are owned by the Razavi Qods Conglomerate which is in the clutches of the mullahs. So, the regime’s institutions have taken over and ravaged more than 70 percent of Golestan’s forests.

Take a look at the catastrophe at Darvazeh Quran of Shiraz where the IRGC was directly responsible for the losses of life. On the day of the incident, the IRGC’s Khatam-ol Anbia Garrison, located at Kilometer 3 of Shiraz-Isfahan Road, diverted the path of flood by engineering equipment to protect the IRGC’s basecamp. As a result, flash floods flowed towards Darvazeh Quran in Shiraz. This is while the river path in Shiraz had already been filled by the detested IRGC.

Now, I would like to go over the second factor. The other factor which contributed to the extent of damages, was imposing poverty and deprivation on our cities and villages, and hindering their progress. Today, we are witnessing with tearful eyes that the cities and towns which fell victims to the flash floods were located in the poorest cities and regions. Thousands of houses which readily crumbled were made out of adobe and mud. They had been built by the cheapest methods and with the least expensive material of little strength.

Yes, the mullahs are responsible for retarding the progress in Turkmen Sahra, Lorestan, Chahar Mahal, Kohgiluyeh, Khuzestan and other provinces. The Velayat-e Faqih regime has stopped Iran’s economic and social development.
Let me summarize. As Massoud Rajavi has reiterated time and again, “Our country has been occupied. The mullahs’ regime is an occupier regime, and its behavior and policies towards our country constitute none but enmity, pillage and devastation.”

This is why our people chant in their protests and uprisings, that “the enemy is right here.” Yes, the enemy of the people of Iran is no one but the ruling mullahs.
So, the country has been divided into two parts. On the one side are the plundered, displaced and defenseless people who have lost everything. On the other side are the detested criminal factions of the ruling regime who have taken hostage the wealth and properties of 80 million Iranians.
We can therefore see that the clerical regime’s ministries are in charge of destroying the country. To preserve the Velayat-e Faqih regime, the municipalities have turned into security services and brokers tasked with plunder. The governorates are in charge of protecting the regime. The Red Crescent is in charge of exporting terrorism and fundamentalism. The Relief Committee helps Syria and Afghanistan. So, all of the country’s institutions and resources are there not to protect the people but to protect the Velayat-e Faqih regime.

In fact, as Massoud Rajavi has said, “Khomeini’s fundamentalist rule was the greatest political, social and religious calamity in Iran’s history. It is the life-and-death test for Iran and every Iranian. The survival or annihilation of our country, culture, history and Iran in its entirety inevitably depends on us, and whether we overcome or lose in the fight against this anachronistic, reactionary regime.”
Please allow me to make a few points.

To the mullahs, we say: These days, the homes of our people have been flooded and washed away due to destructions brought about by your regime. Beware that the floods of our people’s fury will soon destroy and wash away your tottering regime.
To my sisters and brothers, and my daughters and sons, I say: Let us build the force of solidarity in these difficult circumstances when we all need one another. Let’s strengthen the bonds of friendship and love in every city and neighborhood.
There is no one but our fellow citizens, and especially the valiant youths of Iran, who can aid the affected people.

So, rise up and help one another through every available means. Give from whatever you have to those who have lost their homes.
Participate in throngs in the funerals of victims, close your ranks and get united for the overthrow of the occupier mullahs.

We hail the youths who have quickly formed the popular councils in these days.
Your resolve, your efforts and your quick response were admirable. I commend you for the effective work you have done over the past days to give relief to those in need, including your assistance in transporting people, providing shelters for the displaced, taking blankets, food and medicine for them, and your efforts to build barricades to prevent the flooding of residential areas and people’s farms.
Now, the time has come for you to expand your work in every city and village. You should get more organized and united in dealing with the floods and their consequences.
As for the international community, they must condemn the mullahs’ regime in Iran for destroying the country’s infrastructures.

The regime must place the resources of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Army at the disposal of the people of Iran and open the way for international relief efforts.
The clerical regime is concealing the actual numbers of victims and the scale of the damages. We therefore urge the United Nations to launch an independent probe to find out the actual number and dimensions of casualties and damages caused by floods and the impact of the regime’s destructive policies in this regard.

The flash floods once again proved that the overthrow of the clerical regime is vital to the interests of Iran and all Iranians, and it is the only way. This is the duty of the Iranian people and Resistance.
We plan to build, hand in hand with our compatriots, a free and prosperous country, a republic based on the separation of religion and state and on gender equality. A country which upholds human rights, where people can enjoy the right to be protected against floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

All this calls for the international community to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resistance and overthrow the regime. This is the right for which 120,000 freedom-loving children of Iran have already given their lives.
Hail to those heroes
In a few days, we will be observing the eighth anniversary of the heroic perseverance of the Mojahedin in Ashraf in the face of the armed forces of the Iraqi government which was a puppet of the clerical regime in Iran.

We salute the 36 PMOI men and women who gave their lives on April 8, 2011, while defending Ashraf. In fact, they were defending freedom, the Iranian Resistance, and the human rights of the people of Iran. They gave their lives without having any qualms.
The Mojahedin’s battle has always pursued a monistic goal over the years in Ashraf, in Tehran and throughout Iran, and that has been liberating the people of Iran and saving the country from the clutches of repression, poverty and destruction.
In the end, please allow me to point out a fact to you, the freedom-fighters in the PMOI, that this tragedy also had a message for you.

The flash floods of the past two weeks suddenly unveiled the outcome and products of 40 years of corruption and destruction by an anachronistic regime. At the same time, it was a grim reminder of the enormous mission and the tremendous responsibility each and every one of you bears with regards to your country and your people. You, who have kept the banner of Iran’s freedom aloft, throughout the 40 years of the mullahs’ ominous rule, at the price of your lives.

You are the symbols of resistance, perseverance and paying the price in the path of freedom. You are the focal point of hope and trust of your nation. And today, not only Iran’s freedom and the freedom of all Iranians but also the subsistence of life in all cities and villages depends on your fight to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.

And this is a fight with a definite outcome for the regime, which is its downfall, and for the people of Iran, which is their freedom and victory.
Hail to the people of Iran
Hail to all of you