The leader of exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran on Thursday vowed the armed ouster of its decades-old nemesis the Islamic Republic and the founding of a democratic, non-nuclear state in its place.
“The solution to changing this regime lies in the hands of the people and the Iranian Resistance. With the regime’s overthrow by the people and organized resistance, Iran will move toward democracy and prevent a major regional war,” Maryam Rajavi told attendees at a conference in Rome.
“We will have a free, non-nuclear Iran, without executions, without mandatory hijab, without forced religion and without coercive rule,” she added.
Audience members, some wearing matching red and white outfits and headscarves, frequently interrupted her remarks with fist-pumping chants of praise.
The banned Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) group is the largest component of the NCRI whose leaders are based in Paris.
A leftist-Islamist group, the MEK carried out attacks against the shah's government and US targets in the 1970s but fell out with other factions during the 1979 revolution which toppled the monarchy and has been at war with Tehran ever since.
Opposition figures have stepped up calls to rally against Tehran following a punishing 12-day war with Israel last month, but there have been no significant protests.
Iranian exiled prince Reza Pahlavi urged unity among Iran's opposition during a pro-monarchy conference in Munich on Saturday, saying the Islamic Republic's downfall would lead to sustainable peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
The Rome gathering was titled “Neither war nor appeasement - change by the hands of the Iranian people and organized resistance” and hosted a series of senior Western ex-officials who criticized Iran's leadership and praised the NCRI.
These included former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former UK foreign minister James Cleverly and former Belgian prime minister and former president of the European Council Charels Michel.
Iran executed two MEK members accused of targeting civilian sites with improvised weapons, state media reported on Sunday.
“We hold this gathering while the religious tyranny, by executing heroic fighters Behzad Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, expresses its desperation against the people and organized resistance. They never bowed and said “no” to the executioner,” Rajavi said.
The men were accused of like baghi or armed rebellion, moharebeh or waging war against God, efsadfel-arz corruption on earth, membership in a terrorist organization, gathering classified information and conspiracy against national security.
Amnesty International described their trial as "grossly unfair". Iran executed at least 901 people in 2024 - the highest number since 2015 - according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Since 2013, some 2,500 of the MEK members have been sheltered in Albania, where they are banned from engaging in political activity.
