MP Toby Perkins: Iran’s IRGC Must Be Proscribed as a Terrorist Organization

At a UK Parliamentary conference on September 12 that was held to honor the first anniversary of Iran’s 2022 uprising, British MP Toby Perkins, the Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs, expressed his support for the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and their desire for a democratic and free Iran. He mentioned his participation in the Free Iran World Summit 2023 in Paris which brought together parliamentarians from across the globe, demonstrating broad cross-party support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan.

Perkins highlighted the nationwide uprising in Iran over the past year, emphasizing the bravery of the Iranian people despite the oppressive IRGC and the theocratic regime’s danger. He stressed that a free Iran is the ultimate destiny for its people and is in the interest of global peace and a stable Middle East.

MP Perkin concluded by stating the collective hope of people worldwide for a free and democratic Iran that can prosper and contribute positively to the Middle East and the world.

The text of MP Toby Perkins’ speech follows:

Well, thank you very much indeed, and I was one of the many members of the UK Parliament who were able to go to that inspirational conference in Paris this year to express the cross-party support that there is for the NCRI, for Maryam Rajavi‘s Ten-Point Plan, and for supporting all the people of Iran who want to see Iran as a democratic and free nation. It was amazing to see so many parliamentarians from right across the world all joining together, people on the left of politics, and people on the right of politics, all recognizing the desire of the Iranian people to be free, and it was a tremendous pleasure for me as an opposition member of parliament to work hand-in-hand with members of the Conservative government to say that we want to see that freedom that we all take for granted in the West, that should be there for the people of Iran.

And it is no question that one of the major global headlines of the last 12 months has been the nationwide uprising in Iran. This uprising, the bravery of those people taking to the streets, despite the tremendous danger caused by the oppression of the IRGC and the theocratic regime, has been truly inspirational to all of us.

We know that a free Iran is the ultimate destiny for all the people of Iran. We know that it is in the interests of Iran, but we also know that it is in the interests of a more peaceful world, a more peaceful Middle East and that it is something that we need to all push for international pressure in order to see the IRGC prescribed as a terrorist organization for the legitimacy of negotiations that take place to be stripped away and for them to be placed in their proper context in terms of the human rights abusers and in terms of their entire approach towards their own country and the malicious contribution that they make to Middle East politics more generally.
We know that the regime has responded with the barbarism and violence that we have all come to associate with it since the people of Iran took to the streets to express their demands for freedom. Over 750 protesters have already been murdered, including at least 60 children. It is believed that over 35,000 others were detained facing cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment, including both torture and sexual violence.

The regime has no legitimacy and no right to run the country of Iran, and so the regime must be held to account because it is a serial mass murderer. In 2019 it killed 1,500 prisoners and its barbarism continues, and the UK government must stand up and say that it will not negotiate with this terrorist regime.

I am obviously someone who very much hopes that in the United Kingdom, we will get a change of government soon, but the importance is that people in this country are free to choose which government they want.

We know that there is huge international support for Mariam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan, but the future for Iran is not just to support that Ten-Point Plan, but to be able to choose their governments in the future in a democratic way that the rest of us would take for granted. And so the future for the people of Iran is not just to come out in opposition to this regime, not just to get behind the Ten-Point Plan that Mariam Rajavi has won such international support for, but also to know that in the future they will be able to choose their own destiny in a free and democratic Iran.

I would just like to finish by saying that it is very much the hope of people across the UK Parliament, of people across Europe, across the Western world, and indeed across the whole of the world that the fight and awe-inspiring dedication of those protesters in Iran will ultimately lead, as soon as possible, to a free Iran in which oppression will no longer be the watchword of the government, but instead a government working for all of the people of Iran, for it to be free, democratic and to take its rightful place as a prosperous nation in the Middle East and across the world.

Source » ncr-iran.org