Maryam Rajavi: No to Shah, No to Mullahs – Iran’s Only Path

Maryam Rajavi: The “No to Shah, No to Mullahs” Front Is Key to

Overthrowing Religious Fascism

On Sunday, April 19, at an event attended by Mr. Rudy Giuliani and Dr. Maria Ryan, Maryam Rajavi delivered remarks addressing recent developments and outlining a solution to the current crisis in Iran and the region. She stated:

We extend our warmest welcome to Mr. Giuliani and dear Dr. Ryan,
You stood alongside the Iranian people and Resistance in their most difficult times, and for many years you have supported the vanguards of the people of Iran in Ashraf.
During those years, when under orders from Khamenei, the Maliki government carried out the massacre of the residents of Ashraf and subsequently forced them into relocation to Camp Liberty, you spoke out. You rightly described that place as a killing field and raised your voice before the international community.
During the relocation from Iraq to Albania, you continued to support them and were among the first to visit the MEK members in Albania.
We do not forget that you stood firm and fought to overturn the unjust terrorist designation imposed on this Resistance at the behest of the ruling mullahs and helped turn the tide at many critical moments.
And throughout these years, at every key juncture of uprisings, resistance, and the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom, you have consistently demonstrated a principled and sound policy. Especially in this period, you have exposed fabricated and fake alternatives, over an extended time, particularly the return to monarchical dictatorship and the repressive apparatus of SAVAK. You have shown how such paths serve only to obstruct genuine uprising and meaningful change. You have done so with credible evidence, deep analysis, and a distinctive courage that is uniquely your own.
Here, I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to dear Dr. Ryan for your steadfast support along this difficult and challenging path, and for standing alongside the Mayor in defense of the rights of the Iranian people, especially the women of Iran. This commitment is deeply valued by the people of Iran.

Over the past year—and particularly in recent months—Iran has witnessed profound and unprecedented developments. The major uprising of January, the killing of thousands of protesters by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the death of Ali Khamenei, and two devastating wars have brought the country to a decisive turning point.
Amid these events, critical truths have come into sharp focus:
the disastrous consequences of appeasement and concessions to the ruling clerics;
the regime’s inherent resistance to reform;
and its fundamental reliance on the repression of society,
the pursuit of nuclear capabilities, and the export of conflict.
These are truths that Mayor Giuliani has emphasized repeatedly over the years—points that many once dismissed.
It has also become evident that aerial bombardment and external war alone will not bring about the regime’s downfall.
This regime will neither abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, nor cease its support for proxies, nor end its domestic repression.
Recent developments have likewise underscored the indispensable role of the Iranian people and Resistance as the central force in shaping the country’s future. This is the decisive factor capable of leading Iran out of the grip of religious fascism and toward a democratic, pluralistic republic grounded in the sovereignty of its people.

The Mullahs’ Alarm over the MEK’s Appeal among the New Generation

Over the past year, the Iranian Resistance has undergone a period of significant advancement and momentum. In particular, the resistance units played a pivotal role during the January uprising.
Through more than 630 operations carried out during those protests, they helped provide a measure of protection for demonstrators and demonstrated a growing capacity to organize and mobilize young people.
In the aftermath, at a time when Iranian society was grieving and outraged by the brutal killing of protesters, the MEK undertook a major operation targeting the headquarters of the mullahs’ supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Some 250 MEK fighters participated in this action in the heart of Tehran, within one of the most heavily secured areas of the country.
Conducted just five days prior to the recent war, this operation sent shockwaves through the regime.
The ruling clerics understand better than anyone that no threat to their survival is more serious than a force that emerges organically from within society itself, a force that recruits within everyday environments of work and life, that is shielded by the very social fabric around it, and that is capable even of producing its own weapons.
In practice, these resistance units have evolved into units of a Liberation Army, actively confronting regime forces.
The mullahs are particularly alarmed by the growing appeal of this movement among the new generation. This is a generation marked by dedication and a clear desire to organize within the networks of resistance units. Even when arrested, and in some cases facing death sentences, these young individuals have displayed remarkable courage and resolve.
Thirteen political prisoners who were executed by this criminal regime during the days of war belonged to this same devoted generation. Six of them were members of the MEK, individuals whose photographs I have repeatedly displayed over the past two years at international conferences, calling out their names and warning the world of the grave danger they faced. Unfortunately, no meaningful measures were taken in this regard.
The other seven were rebellious protesters arrested during the uprising. Young men and women who, inspired by the MEK and the resistance units, sought the overthrow of the regime.
The emergence of so many such individuals during the uprising demonstrates that the scope of this movement has now extended far beyond that of a single organization. Its strategy has evolved into a broad, grassroots social force moving toward the dismantling of the regime itself.
Through these executions, the ruling clerics seek to halt the advance of a successful strategy or the regime’s overthrow. More than anyone, they understand that this approach is their primary existential threat and will ultimately bring about their downfall.
At present, the regime has become irreversibly weakened and vulnerable. Mojtaba, the son of Khamenei attempts to emulate his father’s conduct, he will never be able to preserve the system of religious tyranny.
In any case, as the Leader of the Iranian Resistance, Massoud Rajavi declared on the day of his designation as the new Supreme Leader: “Our struggle against both religious dictatorship and monarchy, for freedom and independence, will continue unabated and relentlessly until the victory of the Iranian people’s democratic revolution.”

Peace Only Achieved Through the Regime’s Overthrow

In the recent war, countries across the region experienced, at great cost, the consequences of years of attempting to accommodate this regime and offering it various concessions. Despite such efforts, the regime ultimately turned to conflict and destruction against those countries.
Over the past four decades, we have warned repeatedly that lasting peace and stability in the region can only be achieved through the overthrow of this regime by the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance. Today, this reality has been clearly borne out.
At present, negotiations are underway, and we hope they will transform the current ceasefire into a lasting end to war. The Iranian Resistance, having been the first to expose the regime’s nuclear projects and facilities over the past three decades, welcomes any retreat by the regime from its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
For a regime whose survival depends on its nuclear ambitions, its network of proxy forces, and its internal repression, such a development would mark the beginning of an irreversible decline toward its eventual collapse.
This sinister program has already squandered two trillion dollars of Iran’s national wealth. The Iranian people, who have been its primary victims, driven into poverty and hardship as a result, have repeatedly voiced their opposition to it.
Another lesson of recent developments has been the regime’s exploitation of remnants of the former monarchy and the Shah’s son to divert and ultimately suppress the uprising. In its early days, the January uprising was advancing with considerable momentum, expanding day by day. Resistance units and networks associated with the MEK were guiding it forward in a structured and deliberate manner.
However, the opportunistic and questionable intervention of the Shah’s son, accompanied by calls for participation in the uprising on January 8 and 9, gave the regime a free hand to unleash a large-scale crackdown.
Khamenei used this moment to resolve internal divisions within the regime over how to respond, consolidating consensus in favor of intensified crackdown. Otherwise, the uprising might have expanded further and posed an even greater challenge to the regime.
The Shah’s son has played a misleading role by fostering the illusion that, with the onset of external bombardment, the regime would quickly collapse. This narrative has not only misdirected foreign powers but has also had a pacifying effect on the Iranian people.
His emergency phase booklet and public statements leave little doubt that he seeks to restore the very same form of dictatorship, and the same repressive security apparatus, that defined the rule of his predecessors. Just last week, in an interview on Swedish television, he openly expressed pride in the record of his father and grandfather, despite their well-documented legacy of repression, including brutal secret police and a one-party system marked by widespread oppression and bloodshed.
Any effort to promote a return to the former monarchy undermines popular motivation for meaningful change. It raises a fundamental question: why should one sacrifice to overthrow one dictatorship, only to see another take its place?
The regime, by infiltrating circles close to this figure, has sought to influence his positions and shape his role to its own advantage. Through coordinated efforts in media and online platforms, certain interested parties have attempted to manufacture him as a viable alternative, circulating misleading reports and fabricated images to portray him as a figure ready to fill a supposed power vacuum immediately after the regime’s collapse.
Yet the model of externally constructed leadership, exemplified by Ahmed Chalabi in Iraq, cannot be repeated.
The remnants of the monarchy are not a matter for Iran’s future, nor do they represent a genuine alternative to the National Council of Resistance; rather, they constitute a present-day issue that disrupts and complicates the struggle for change. For this reason, the formation of a broad-based popular front that rejects both monarchy and theocratic rule is essential to overthrowing religious fascism.
This “No to Shah, No to Mullahs” front is an inclusive and expansive coalition in which all segments of society can participate. Today, it has already begun to take on significant scope in practice: the people of Iran and the oppressed ethnic groups standing united in opposition to religious fascism with the slogan, “No to Shah, No to Mullahs.”

We envision a future in which, through the overthrow of religious fascism by the Iranian people and their organized resistance, Iran is transformed into a center of peace and stability in the Middle East—one that rejects both the dictatorship of the Shah and the rule of the clerics.
In the wake of the profound developments of the past year, it is my hope that decision-makers will decisively abandon the misguided approaches of the past four decades and avoid any policy direction that perpetuates engagement with the regime while overlooking the Iranian Resistance.
I will conclude my remarks by recalling two unforgettable events, the anniversaries of which fall today:
April 19, 1972, marks the anniversary of the execution of the first group of Central Committee members of the MEK, Ali Bakeri, Nasser Sadeq, Ali Mihandoost, and Mohammad Bazargani, who were executed by firing squad on the orders of the Shah.
And April 19, 1975, marks the anniversary of the brutal crime committed by the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, on the hills of Evin Prison: the executions of the Fedayeen members Bijan Jazani, Hassan Zia-Zarifi, Aziz Sarmadi, Saeed Kalantari, Abbas Sooraki, Mohammad Chupan-Zadeh, and Ahmad Jalil Afshar, along with the MEK martyrs Commander Kazem Zolanvar and Mostafa Javan Khoshdel.
These two events stand as defining examples of the brutality of the Shah’s dictatorship, and as emblematic of the sacrifice of a generation that paved the way for its overthrow.
The suffering and the bloodshed, whose fruits were later usurped by Khomeini, have nonetheless left a lasting legacy that remains a foundation for our people’s struggle for freedom.
We pay tribute to these martyred heroes.