Strasbourg, June 18, 2025 — In a speech before members of the European Parliament, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reaffirmed her call for a democratic transition in Iran, emphasizing that true peace and stability in the region depend on “regime change by the people of Iran and the organized Resistance.”
Returning to Strasbourg seven months after her previous address, Mrs. Rajavi warned that the Iranian regime now faces a growing “crisis of overthrow.” She cautioned that ongoing Western appeasement policies have only deepened instability, pointing to the war that began on June 13 as a critical inflection point. “We see that appeasement has indeed led to the imposition of war,” she stated.
Reiterating her long-advocated “third option,” Mrs. Rajavi urged European lawmakers to reject both military intervention and continued negotiations. “Neither appeasement nor war,” she said, “but regime change at the hands of the Iranian people and their organized, legitimate, and just Resistance.”
She condemned the West’s ongoing engagement with the Iranian regime, describing it as irredeemably violent and incapable of reform. “A viper never gives birth to a dove,” she said, underscoring the regime’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Mrs. Rajavi reminded the Parliament of the NCRI’s role in exposing Iran’s clandestine nuclear activities in 2002 — a revelation that, she noted, was acknowledged by U.S. officials at the time. “Otherwise,” she said, “the regime would have built its nuclear bombs in secrecy.”
Despite these revelations, the NCRI was blacklisted for years, she recalled, while Tehran’s malign behavior continued. “What we have always wanted is to resist — just as you Europeans once did — against religious fascism,” she told the lawmakers. “We only ask that this Resistance be recognized.”
Turning to human rights abuses inside Iran, Mrs. Rajavi cited over 1,350 executions since August 2024, noting that Iran holds the world’s highest execution rate per capita. “Western governments and media have largely ignored this grim reality,” she remarked.
She highlighted ongoing unrest, pointing to more than 3,000 operations by PMOI-led Resistance Units in the past year. “Nowhere in the world are protests and resistance for change as widespread and persistent as in Iran,” she said.
Mrs. Rajavi also renewed calls for the European Union to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, describing it as a core instrument of internal repression. She acknowledged that the European Parliament has passed multiple resolutions condemning Iran’s rights violations but said these actions have yet to be matched by coherent EU policy.
Concluding her remarks, she called for official recognition of the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the current regime. Quoting NCRI founder Massoud Rajavi, she declared: “We will not return to the past, nor will we remain stuck in the present — the future will undoubtedly be realized. Yes, a democratic and free Iran.”
Mrs. Rajavi reaffirmed the NCRI’s vision of a democratic republic based on gender equality, ethnic inclusion, abolition of the death penalty, and a non-nuclear policy. She emphasized that a transitional government would transfer power to a freely elected constituent assembly within six months of the regime’s collapse.
“The people of Iran want the overthrow of this regime,” she concluded. “That is exactly why I am here today.”
