Five hundred political figures from around the world, many well known, attended the recent Paris Free Iran summit.  Their enthusiastic presence showed that Tom Ridge, the first secretary of U.S. Homeland Security, was correct when he said, "The moment has come for the West to face the truth about Iran."  Other political figures also recognize that change is coming to Iran.

Anna Firth, a member of the British Parliament: "We are in a moment of major change."

Hervé Solignac, a member of the French National Assembly: "What is going on in Iran now is the desire for freedom, which is the issue of all the people of the world, and we are fighting for the freedom of all the people of the world."  He further added: "The freedom of Iran is our problem and responsibility," and "We share our highest human sentiments with all freedom-seekers."

Emanuele Pozzolo, a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, has likened freedom to a flame that should light up the whole world.

Image: Maryam Rajavi.  YouTube screen grab.

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence:

The Iranian regime has proven time and time again that it is incapable of moderating. Every olive branch extended by Western nations over the past 40 years has been unceremoniously broken in two. Only a renewed commitment to maximum pressure can change the future of Iran, and that must include recognition and strong support for the organized Resistance so well represented here today.

Peace is only possible through strength. Weakness arouses evil.

[snip]

Just last month, I was proud to join a group of more than 100 former world leaders calling on President Joe Biden and leaders of the European Union to join us in supporting the Iranian resistance and specifically Mariam Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan.

We want peace to come at last to Iran. Supporting the resistance is a prerequisite for peace.

The personalities participating in this summit all emphasized a gentle and lofty human spirit that believes that if there is only one captive and prisoner in the world, no one can enjoy the blessing of complete freedom.

On July 6, 1941, President Roosevelt sent a message to Congress in which he envisioned a world in which all people had basic freedom (the Four Freedoms speech):

His "four essential human freedoms" included some phrases already familiar to Americans from the Bill of Rights, as well as some new phrases: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Western politicians' practicing policies of appeasement and siding with dictators, though, have often damaged many of these human needs and abetted the dictators to harm their people even more.

Meanwhile, in Iran, the people are continuing their fight for freedom.  In a meeting with members of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, Maryam Rajavi, who represents the MEK, presented the six elements of a sound policy on Iran:

1. Designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization and actively confronting its presence beyond Iran's borders, including in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, etc.

2. Recognizing the Iranian people's right to self-defense against the IRGC and their right to overthrow the regime and establish a democratic republic based on the separation of religion and state.

3. Activating the trigger mechanism and implementing snapback sanctions by reinstating the six UN Security Council resolutions on Iran, including shutting down the nuclear and missile programs that violate UN resolutions and resuming unconditional inspections of nuclear and missile facilities.

4. Referring the regime's dossier of flagrant and systematic human rights violations to the UN Security Council and holding the regime's leaders accountable for 40 years of genocide and crimes against humanity.

5. Severing economic exchanges and imposing comprehensive sanctions on the regime, mainly through an oil embargo and a ban on banking relations, will effectively cut off the regime's financial lifelines that enable domestic repression, nuclear weapons development, terrorism, and regional interference.

6. Declaring the regime as a threat to global peace and security and placing it under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

Hassan Mahmoudi, Iran & Middle East political and economic researcher.