Mike Pence on Iran’s anti-regime protests: ‘the revolution in the making’
The current anti-regime protests in Iran are a “revolution in the making”, according to former US Vice President Mike Pence, who has slammed the Biden and Obama administrations for their ineffectiveness in combating Iranian threats, while warning that a a renewed nuclear deal would pave a “golden path” for the Islamic Republic to achieve a nuclear bomb.
Appearing Saturday at a summit in Washington hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OPCW) in support of a free and democratic Iran, Pence addressed Iran’s anti-regime activists, delivering a major foreign policy speech focused on the Islamic regime.
He underlined the “common cause” he shared with the Iranian-Americans present: “the liberation of the Iranian people from decades of tyranny and the rebirth of a free, peaceful, prosperous and democratic Iran”. Pence went on to say:
I know I speak for tens of millions of Americans, of both political parties and of all political philosophies, when I say from the bottom of my heart: The American people support your goal of establishing a secular, democratic and non-nuclear which derives its powers from the consent of the governed.
Pence then criticized America’s ‘silence’ in 2009 and the ‘timid support of the Obama administration’ when ‘millions of brave men and women took to the streets of Tehran and Tabriz’ to denounce a ‘fraudulent election’. and demand “an end to decades of repression.”
“The American cause is freedom. And in this cause, America must never be silent,” he said, adding that the American people “stand with you – yesterday, today and always.”
In contrast, he expressed pride in the Trump-Pence administration, when “America did not turn a deaf ear to the calls of the Iranian people (and) did not remain silent in the face of countless Iranian regime’s atrocities, sowing violence across the region.”
Additionally, he explained:
We stood with freedom-loving Iranians. We canceled the Iran nuclear deal, which flooded the regime’s coffers with tens of billions of dollars, money it used to suppress its own people and support deadly terrorist attacks around the world. We have imposed crippling new sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards. We launched a campaign of maximum pressure, punishing the regime for its bellicose behavior and attacks on its own citizens. We have vigorously applied sanctions to bring Iran’s oil exports to near zero and deprive the regime of its main source of income.
“We called on the free nations of the world to stand with us and with the Iranian people (and) we encouraged world leaders to condemn Iran’s unelected dictators and uphold the Iranian people’s inalienable right to determine his own destiny,” he added.
He also called out the current administration for “renouncing sanctions imposed by the Trump-Pence administration related to the Iranian regime’s nuclear activities.”
“Appeasement has never worked and never will.”
According to Pence, a renewed nuclear deal will not lead to “peace and stability” but to “more terrorism, death and destruction”, while destabilizing the region.
It will also not block Iran’s path to a nuclear bomb, but will “pave it with gold”, he said, adding that such a deal would not “benefit the Iranian people in any way”. but rather “strengthen and enrich the regime that tormented and tortured the Iranian people for generations”.
Therefore, Pence called on the Biden administration to “stand with the people of Iran…to uphold the cause of freedom and justice…and to cease and desist all efforts toward nuclear negotiations” with the Iranian government. regime, noting that “peace is only possible with force.
Calling America’s past “silence”, Pence noted that the Iranian regime “has never been weaker than it is today”, with the Iranian people “fed up (and) ready for the change”, while he praised the Iranian resistance which “has never been so strong”. .”
Under the leadership of (the Iranian opposition MEK (Mujahadin-e Khalq)), teachers, workers and pensioners bravely took to the streets in more than 280 cities in 31 provinces. Students from more than 130 universities – even high school seniors – have brought new energy to the cause. The protests were isolated and sporadic. Now that the global media is watching what they can, the protests have been going on uninterrupted for 6 months.
According to Pence, the current anti-regime protests in Iran are “not just another protest (but) a revolution in the making.”
“And it is thanks to the trust and faith of all of you and especially the brave Iranians – especially the women who have paid a huge price – who are leading the decades-long fight for freedom and justice,” he said. he declared.
He also denounced the “false reformers and puppets of the regime pretending to be moderates”.
“We know that many of these so-called reformers offer nothing more than false hope and the illusion of change,” he said. “But the Iranian people want real change – and real change is exactly what the MEK is offering.”
He concluded by urging “all free nations” in the world to “continue to support the Iranian people in their calls for freedom and to demand that Iran’s leaders cease their dangerous and destabilizing actions at home and abroad”.
“We stand with the Iranian people because it is right and because the regime in Tehran threatens world peace and security,” he added.
Last week, a bipartisan majority in the House approved a resolution expressing Congressional support for a Democratic Republic of Iran while calling for a new Iranian policy in light of the continued protests of the Iranian people and growing repression by “theocratic thugs who have oppressed them for too long”.
Key points of the newly announced H.Res.100:
1. Recognizes the aspirations of the Iranian people for a democratic Iran
2. Recognizes the rights of protesters
3. Support for @Maryam_RajaviThe 10-point plan of
4. Hold Iran Accountable
5. Call to investigate the regime for human rights abuses pic.twitter.com/iAVfXdUBrB— OPCW: Organization of Iranian-American Communities (@OrgIAC) February 8, 2023
The resolution, sponsored by 223 members of the US House of Representatives, backs Iran’s uprisings for a secular republic. It notes that Iranian opposition political leader MEK (Mujahadin-e Khalq) and President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Maryam Rajavi, the “ten-point plan” to guarantee freedom of expression and assembly of Iranians – along with the right to choose their elected leaders – is the “path to a free, secular, democratic and non-nuclear Iran”.
The case comes as massive protests continue to sweep Iran after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic theocracy’s notorious ‘morality police’ for violating strict requirements for women to cover their heads in public .
Since then, a slew of incidents involving abuse and even death at the hands of the regime have been documented amid an ongoing crackdown on protests, with clips circulating showing Iranian regime officers brutally assaulting protesters.
Representatives of the Iranian parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have claims Iran – the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world – is currently witnessing a revolution “in the making”, with the Islamic Republic no longer able to contain the current uprising.
Previously, Pence accused the Biden administration to threaten to “unravel all progress” made by the Trump administration in marginalizing the Iranian regime.
He also expressed his unwavering support for the Iranian resistance while castigating the Biden team’s new concessions to Tehran’s “tyrants”, its “virtual abandonment of our ally Israel” and the “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan”, which have emboldened the “opponents of freedom” who now denote the “weakness” of the American administration.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
Breitbart
