20,000 Iranians rally outside UN, demand expulsion of Ahmadinejad, support democratic change in Iran
Thursday, 15 September 2005
http://www.ncr-iran.org/content/view/373/1/
NCRI, September 15 - On Wednesday September 14, more than 20,000 Iranians from 40 states across America rallied outside the United Nations Headquarters to condemn strongly the presence of Iran's terrorist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN and demanded his expulsion.
The demonstrators carried the portraits of the Resistance's leadership and Iran's tri-colored flag and chanted slogans the policy of appeasing the clerical regime, demanding the removal of the terrorist tag against the resistance's pivotal force, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran. They also expressed their support for democratic change in Iran with Maryam Rajavi.
In this rally, the biggest-ever by Iranians in the US, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi spoke to the audience via a live satellite feed. She said, "The Iranian Resistance calls for imposing an oil embargo on the clerical regime. The clerical dictatorship must be denied the oil revenues that help preserve its rule… All restrictive pressures imposed on the Iranian nation and its resistance must be ended. The inclusion of the Mojahedin in the terrorist lists of the US and Europe is the most important restriction these countries have applied on the Iranian people and their Resistance… The terror label against the Iranian Resistance movement is the hallmark of the policy of appeasement toward the mullahs' regime. Now that the policy of strengthening the bogus moderates within the regime has failed miserably this label has to be removed."
Mr. Thomas von Essen, New York City's Fire Department commissioner on September 11, 2001, address the rally, calling Ahmadinejad a murderer. On behalf of NY City's Police and Fire departments, he expressed his support for the rally by Iranians and democratic change in Iran.
Rabi Daniel Zuker from New York, father Anthony Ercolano and families of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy, the terrorist bombings in Khobar and Beirut also addressed the rally and denounced Ahmadinejad's visit to the New York. They also declared support for the objectives of the demonstration.
A large number of members of European parliaments, including David Amess and Brian Binley, UK MPs, Lars Rice, Norwegian deputy, Ryszard Czarnecki, member of the European Parliament and Paul Forseth, MP from Canada, expressed support for democratic change by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi and emphasized the need to remove the People's Mojahedin from the list of terrorist organizations.
Ms. Soona Samsami, Moslem Eskandar Filabi, Iran's former national wrestling champion, Dr. Ahmad Rajavi and Alireza Jafarzadeh also spoke to the crowd.
The resolution's rally read in part, "The Iranian people demand the overthrow of this regime and democratic change in their country. We commend remarks by the US president who underscored the illegitimacy of the regime's elections and said that a few unelected men are ruling over the Iranian people. We declare that for some time now, the Iranian people have arisen for their freedom. It is time that the world community adopts a decisive policy toward the clerical regime and recognizes the right of the Iranian people for freedom. This regime is on its way out and the future belongs to the Iranian people and Resistance."
The resolution also condemned the mullahs' barbaric atrocities and declared support for the hunger strike by Iranian political prisoners in the Iranian regime's prisons.