According to Habilian, Seyyed Mohammad Javad Hasheminejad, Secretary General of Habilian Association (Families of 17000 Iranian Victims of Terrorism) gave a lecture at the 6th International New Horizons Conference in Mashad.
The 6th New Horizon Conference was held in Mashhad on May 12th through the 15th 2018. The conference hosted more than 50 academics, politicians, authors, journalists, activists, filmmakers, and media commentators from around the world who came to discuss different viewpoints and show worldwide solidarity with Palestinian oppressed people.
What follows is the full text of Habilian Association SG’s speech at the Conference.
Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, more than 17,000 people have been killed as a result of terrorist attacks in Iran. These assassinations have had rare and unique qualities. Although terrorism is a familiar phenomenon for many countries in today's world, it was rarely known for many countries when Iran was dealing with it as a daily event.
Terrorist attacks in Iran are bizarre exceptions. You cannot find anywhere else in the world in which President, Prime Minister, Head of the Supreme Court, and tens of parliamentary members along with large numbers of citizens have been assassinated in a matter of months. This is an unprecedented record of terrorist attacks.
Another interesting issue is that all of the individuals and groups, who officially took the responsibility for these attacks, have offices in European countries and the United states. Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution until now, about 35 terrorist groups have assassinated 17,000 people in Iran, including the authorities of the country (such as the Supreme Leader, who was seriously injured in his right hand during a terrorist attack), and ordinary people and children. Most of these assassinations were carried out by the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MeK).
Overtly and covertly supported by the West, this group killed about 12,000 officials and ordinary people in Iran. Interestingly, the US Department of State in 1997, during the Clinton administration, released a detailed report on the terrorist history of the MeK. This report points to two very important realities: 1. This terrorist group has assassinated a large number of ordinary people and government officials in Iran; 2. The group is despised by the people of Iran and has killed many Iranians during Iran-Iraq war with the help and complicity of Saddam. Nevertheless, most of the gatherings and meetings of this group are held in the United States and Europe, especially in France.
in 2003, the leader of this organization was detained for two nights following the US and France’s decision to expand their relations with the Iranian government. In protest to this arrest, ten members of the organization set themselves on fire in front of French embassies by the order of the organization. This is an appalling terrorist act.
In 1991, members of this group simultaneously attacked the Iranian embassies in 10 European countries and Australia. In a film of this terrorist act, it is observed that MeK members injured an Iranian diplomat in the Iran’s embassy in Australia by an ax. Not only the MeK has not been punished for these criminal acts, but it has allowed to hold large annual meetings in Paris. However, French Government denies the support for and association with this group.
Seymour Hersh, the distinguished American journalist, said in 2009 that the MeK, supported and trained by Mossad, was responsible for the assassination of five Iranian nuclear scientists. There is a lot of evidence in this regard. We have categorized the reports of the European Union, Human Rights Watch, the US Department of State, and many other documents in a book which will be presented to you.
These documents reveal that the Iranian authorities and people were assassinated with direct support of Western countries, especially the United States. If one of these terrorist acts was performed by a group that had an office in a hostile country, then What was the westerners’ reaction?
During the Clinton administration, when al-Qaeda had turned his weapon towards the western countries, the US government hit a leader of this terrorist group in the Sudan desert by a missile fired from its ships in the Persian Gulf. So, why the leaders of the terrorist groups, who have committed all these crimes in Iran, are freely moving around in western countries and introduced as supporters of democracy?
Mr. Bolton and Mr. Pompeo, believe that Iran is a tyrannical country and its government must be overthrown. The question is that who would replace this government? The MeK with such amount of crimes and terrorist acts? Is this the United States’ favorite democracy for Iranian people? These people, who support the MKO, today have a high rank in the United States’ government. This is what the Iranian people see of the democracy that Western governments prescribe for them: Making Iran another Syria. From the Western point of view, the meaning of democracy for Iran is turning it into Syria or Iraq.