Newt Gingrich: Iranian opposition gathering represents a great opportunity for democracies

Newt Gingrich: Iranian opposition gathering represents a great opportunity for democracies

The largest gathering of Iranian Resistance supporters who gathered this week in Paris represent a “dramatically better future” for Iran, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives said in a video message sent to the gathering.

“You represent a great opportunity for America and other democracies to reach out to work with people who want to have an open, peaceful, free Iran,” Newt Gingrich said in his message.

The Iranian expatriates gathered in Villpinte, near Paris, on Saturday to call for the overthrow of the Iranian regime and the establishment of a free, secular, non-nuclear Iran.

“Your intelligence sources inside Iran, your networks, have been invaluable in providing information that otherwise would not be available,” Gingrich said, referring to the numerous revelations made by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on the nuclear issue and the regime’s terrorism.

Gingrich who had attended the annual gatherings on previous occasions, praised NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi, and said, “I’ve found every time I’ve been able to come to Paris, to listen to the strong reports of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi to see what people around the world are doing to get to a free and peaceful Iran, I am impressed and motivated.”

He voiced strong pessimism that the Iranian regime can ever reform itself, saying, “There is no evidence, zero, none, that the current dictatorship has in any way moderated its position.”

He said all the evidence under indicate that under Hassan Rouhani situation has “gotten worse”. “There is more repression … the lack of freedom is getting more difficult,” He added.

The Iranian regime believes “they can get away with virtually anything,” he said.

Turning to the Iranian regime’s nuclear program and decade-long negotiations, Gingrich said, “For all these years, the dictatorship has calmly, quietly, steadily built more and more centrifuges, while manipulating” interlocutors.

Beyond the nuclear weapons issue, “Over the last few years [the regime’s] power has spread.”

In Iraq, the Iranian regime has filled much of the vacuum of power that the United States left behind as they withdrew, Gingrich warned.

“The Iraqi government is penetrated by the Iranians.”

In Syria, Gingrich added, “Iranian military units, nor trainers and observers, are pouring into Syria to prop up Assad. The fact is that the Assad dictatorship has been getting weaker and weaker. The Iranians have an enormous investment, in money as well as in arms and equipment. They really felt that Syria was, in a very real way, the western flank of their effort to dominate the region.”

“As anti-Assad forces gain ground all across Syria, the regime has reached the conclusion that the only way to save their puppet is to actually put Iranian forces in.”

“The threat is so great that there are many people across the region begin to say we must take a much firmer and much more direct position with the Iranian dictatorship.”

Gingrich called for a policy that sides with the Iranian people in their quest for freedom. “We have to reach out to Iranians who love freedom, who are prepared to stand up for freedom, who are committed to change.”

He also criticized the “failure of the American government to follow through on its commitments to the residents of Camp Liberty,” where Iranian opposition activists affiliated with Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI) reside.

“We have an obligation to continue to build pressure so the U.S. government keeps its word. There are lives at stake,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich added, “This dictatorship in the end will not stand. The people of Iran will not allow it to stand. You are on the winning side of history, you will form the free democratic, safe government of the future.”