The Iranian people desire an end to the regime’s nuclear weapons program, the leader of Iran’s Parliament-in-exile told Fox News in an interview on Friday.
The mullahs’ regime in Iran “cannot and should not be trusted” to respect the terms of any agreement that the world powers reach with it on its nuclear projects, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said.
“Do not make more concessions to this regime. Adopt a firm policy and make it clear to the Mullahs ruling Iran that they have to abandon their nuclear weapons program,” she told Fox News in the exclusive interview.
Mrs. Rajavi warns that “making more concessions to the regime lays the ground for more instability, and more conflicts and war. U.S. policy has emboldened the Mullahs’ regime. I warn them that their illusion of changing the behavior of the Mullahs’ regime by making concessions to it has already cost the Iranian people dearly, continuing on that path would have serious consequences for the region and the world.”
Mrs. Rajavi is especially concerned about the prospect that despite the agreement, Iran will ban United Nations nuclear inspectors from its military sites, like the Parchin military complex, and bar interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists.
“A tough inspection regime, which includes access to all suspect sites anytime and anywhere, is necessary to prevent the Iranian regime form obtaining the bomb.”
“Nuclear negotiations should compel the Mullahs’ regime to abandon its nuclear weapons program. This is the desire of the Iranian people who oppose this program. The Mullahs need the bomb for their own survival,” warns Rajavi.
“No concession should be made to this brutal regime.”
Since Fox News’ first interview with Mrs. Rajavi last year, she has increasingly taken on a higher profile in the United States. In April, she testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade by video-link from France. Her warnings, calling Iran the “godfather” of jihadi terrorism, made headlines from “The New York Times” to the Arabic news service “Al Arabiya.” She told lawmakers that the ultimate solution to the Iranian nuclear issue “is regime change.”
“I have no doubt that our goal for a democratic Iran is supported by the American people,” she told Fox News.
Mrs. Rajavi will lead the largest gathering of the Iranian opposition movement in a massive rally outside of Paris Saturday, Fox News reported.
A litany of top former government officials from the United States and other western nations are set to address the gathering in France, including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
“There is only one reason that they are seeking the ability to have nuclear capacity, and that is in order to build a nuclear weapon,” Giuliani, a long-time proponent of the Iranian resistance movement, told Fox News.
“There should be support by the United States government for an opposition in Iran. The United States government should support the opposition groups, Mrs. Rajavi’s being the most prominent, and the biggest.”
Giuliani compares Mrs. Rajavi’s group to other resistance movements like Solidarity, the Polish trade union lead by Leach Walesa, that helped lead to the fall of the Soviet Union.
“We should embrace them, the way we embraced Solidarity during the effort to defeat the Soviets which was so important. We didn’t send troops, we didn’t send the military. By recognizing Solidarity, we gave them a credibility that eventually led or at least was a part of what led to the demise of the Soviet Union, and it gives us leverage with Iran.”
