From June 30 to July 3, for four consecutive days, the Iranian communities held five major conferences and panels, alongside a major rally in Paris with thousands of supporters attending. The aim was to draw the attention of the international community to a pressing issue: with the terrorist theocracy in Iran gone, the world will be a better place and this change is possible. Yet this year’s Free Iran summit came against the backdrop of several internationally influenced matters in which Tehran was the party with the most at stake and thus with the most undertaking.
The summit was attended by over 1,000 dignitaries from around the world, including parliamentarians, lawmakers, jurists, and human rights activists, who came to show their support for the Iranian people.
The summit was a call for the international community to unite in support of the Iranian people’s fight for a democratic republic. The event highlighted the importance of holding the regime accountable for its crimes against humanity and urged the international community to support the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and democracy. The summit emphasized the need for solidarity among the international community to achieve the goal of a democratic republic in Iran.
Below are excerpts from some of the speeches:
Former speaker of the UK House of Commons Mr John Bercow
“ The appeasement thesis. Well, they’re not very nice but we’ve got to appease them, we’ve got to acknowledge them, we’ve got to accommodate them, we’ve got to some extent for better or for worse to accept them. None of those things is true! Not for a moment. And we’ve had some inspiring and sagacious words today.
I hope ladies and gentlemen I will be permitted as a Brit to remind you of what the late and great Sir Winston Churchill had to say about appeasement in the 1930s in respect of a government then led in the 30s but very badly by his own party. This is what Churchill had to say before thankfully the country had the benefit of his services in time.
There we see my right honourable friend the Prime Minister on the front bench pursuing his policy of appeasement. Resolved only to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
Ladies and gentlemen it was a council of despair then and it’s a council of despair now and it’s a council of despair that we should unhesitatingly reject!”
Anna Firth, member of the UK House of Commons
“We stand with you because it is clear that your courage and your determination must go on. It must go on until the oppression of women stops. It must go on until the use of sexual violence as a means of oppressing women stops, and it must go on until the murder and deliberate poisoning of innocent children stops. And finally, it must go on until every man and woman is treated equally in a free Iran”.
David Jones, member of the UK House of Commons
“The uprising has also exposed the hollowness of false political alternatives, particularly those related to the remnants of the Shah’s regime propaganda. Attempts to present those groups as leader of the uprising have proven unsuccessful. And the Iranian people, having endured years of oppression, imprisonment, and political executions under the Shah will not return to such a dictatorship.
Lisa Chambers, Leader of the Irish Senate (Dec 2022-present)
The Irish Government has been very clear. The executions carried out by the Iranian authorities and the severe sentencing of peaceful protesters is unacceptable and we utterly condemn these actions.
Last year, in October, following the death of Masha Amani, I drafted a resolution for the Irish Senate that passed with the unanimous support of all members of our House on the issues affecting the Iranian people, in particular the violations against women and girls.
We condemned the unrelenting and oppressive actions of the Iranian authorities. We support the right to freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly of the Iranian people. We condemn the restrictions on access to the Internet, which restricts freedom of expression and also freedom of assembly.
I want to pay particular tribute to the inspirational Iranian women. Who every day sacrificed their well-being and their safety and that of their families in the fight for freedom for Iran. Many of them have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Today we remember that sacrifice
Elizabeth Truss, British Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party (2022)
“Countries that believe and people that believe in freedom and democracy need to work together and we need to double down on our efforts.
The people here today, the people here today, understand that better than anyone. Because you’ve faced the brutality of the Iranian regime. You know what it feels like to be persecuted by the IRGC. You know what it’s like to not speak freely. You know what it’s like not to be able to have access to free media and understand what is going on in the world.
And that’s why I will never, never give up hope for a free, democratic Iran. And I believe that ultimately freedom and democracy will prevail in Iran because that is ultimately what people want. Because when people are choosing they choose freedom”.
