I extend my sincere appreciation to world leaders for their goodwill and urge acknowledgement of the MEK (People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran) as the only viable opposition capable of ending Iran’s oppressive regime. Born in Iran and raised in the UK, I witnessed my people’s suffering. MEK long recognised this regime as terrorist abroad and oppressive at home, now globally understood.
Free Iran 2025 summit
In Rome on 31 July 2025, at the Free Iran 2025 summit, a remarkable convergence of global political leaders, jurists, and human rights advocates delivered a message of clarity, conviction, and unity: there is a viable, organised, and democratic alternative ready to lead Iran into a future of freedom and that is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
In the presence of Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, speaker after speaker made the case that the Iranian regime is at its weakest point since seizing power in 1979 and that the time for decisive support for the Iranian Resistance has arrived.
Former leaders, prime ministers, mayors, EU parliamentarians, US prosecutors, and human rights defenders were unanimous in stating that the West’s dual-track policy of appeasement and containment has failed. Meanwhile, foreign military interventions have proven not only ineffective, but in many cases, counterproductive. What remains is the third option: regime change by the Iranian people and their organised resistance.
As former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi told the audience in Rome, “No foreign war. No appeasement. Regime change by the people of Iran and the resistance; this is the only way”. As a declaration of both principle and realism, it reflected a profound understanding of the regime’s nature and the rising potential of the democratic opposition.
Iran’s brutality and violation of international agreements
Michèle Alliot-Marie, a former French foreign and defence minister, reminded us that the Iranian regime has repeatedly violated international agreements, particularly concerning its nuclear program. “Can we trust a theocratic dictatorship that has never respected its commitments?” she asked. The answer, echoed across the conference, was a resounding: no.
Others underlined the growing brutality of the regime. In 2024 alone, Iran executed nearly 1,000 people. In just the first half of 2025, nearly 600 more were hanged, including freedom fighters Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani.
Dr Javaid Rehman (former UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran) at the Free Iran summit emphasised the large-scale executions and the need for accountability. Stephen Rapp (former US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice) warned the public about the escalation of executions and framed them as part of the regime’s international crimes.
Iranian political prisoners facing execution
Five Iranian political prisoners face imminent execution following a series of secretive and violent transfers by the Iranian authorities, sparking urgent international concern. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the NCRI, have issued emergency statements calling for immediate action to save their lives.
The five prisoners: Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar (Shahrokh) Daneshvarkar, Mohammad Taghavi, and Vahid Bani Amerian were sentenced to death in December 2024 by Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court on charges related to their alleged affiliation with the opposition group MEK. Their trials have been widely condemned as grossly unfair.
On 7 August, authorities violently removed the men from Greater Tehran Penitentiary, separating them from other political prisoners. It is believed they were transferred to Ghezel Hesar Prison, a known site for executions, though their exact whereabouts remain unconfirmed. This move has heightened fears of imminent execution without warning or legal transparency.
Amnesty International issued a public alert, naming the five men and demanding that “Iranian authorities must immediately halt any plans to execute” them. The organisation emphasised the unfair nature of their trials and called for their death sentences to be “immediately quashed”.
Act now to stop Iran
The British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF) urges the UK government to lead these efforts and to take immediate action with international partners to deliver on its commitment to hold the regime in Iran to account.
The NCRI also released a detailed statement, reporting that the prisoners were forcibly separated from others and transferred to an undisclosed location. The group warned of the real danger of secret executions and called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Human Rights Council, and other international bodies to urgently intervene.
All five prisoners are educated professionals and political dissidents with a history of arrests:
- Babak Alipour, 34, is a law graduate previously imprisoned for four years.
- Pouya Ghobadi, 33, is an electrical engineer arrested multiple times.
- Akbar Daneshvarkar, 58, is a civil engineer.
- Mohammad Taghavi, 59, is a long-time activist and former political prisoner from the 1980s.
- Vahid Bani Amerian, 33, is an electrical engineer graduate and holds a master’s degree in management and has faced repeated arrests since 2017.
The international community is urged to take immediate action to pressure Iranian authorities to stop the executions and ensure due process and justice for these prisoners.
Back the Iranian Resistance
Yet even in the shadow of mass executions and oppression, there is light. The Iranian Resistance, led by Rajavi and the NCRI, has not only survived, it has grown, adapted, and organised. Rapp, who tried war criminals in Rwanda and Bosnia, powerfully reminded the audience: justice is possible, and crimes against humanity do not fade into impunity when the world chooses accountability.
Ingrid Betancourt (former Colombian senator and presidential candidate) said the NCRI isn’t merely resisting, it is offering a blueprint for Iran’s democratic future. Rajavi’s 10-point plan lays the foundation for a secular, pluralistic, non-nuclear republic based on universal suffrage, gender equality, religious freedom, and a free-market economy. Her message: “neither with the Shah, nor with the mullahs” reflects a break with all forms of dictatorship.
What makes this alternative credible, even formidable, is its grassroots foundation inside Iran. Resistance units operating under extreme repression have risked everything, forming the spine of a future uprising. Relying on these courageous men and women, the NCRI is not asking for foreign troops or money for regime change in Iran. They are asking for recognition, support, and the end of legitimacy for their oppressors.
Don’t believe the propaganda
Carla Sands (former US ambassador to Denmark) put it powerfully: “Don’t believe the mullahs’ propaganda. The time for appeasement is over. The head of the snake, the number one exporter of terrorism, must no longer be tolerated.” Europe and the wider international community, she urged, must finally designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, cut off financial channels, and isolate the regime diplomatically.
The international community must now choose whether it will continue clinging to discredited illusions or finally support the only legitimate force for democratic change in Iran. In that hall in Rome, filled with the pictures of martyrs and the voices of survivors, the answer was clear: there is a path forward, and it is not in Geneva or Vienna or Washington, but in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, and other cities across Iran.
Regime change is not a dream. It is a demand. And it is ready.
