the phone. And I'm Frederica, thank you for doing this with us.
So we have, as you can maybe see the other guest here, is our engineers and they're gonna
just make sure everything looks and sounds good before we officially start. While we're
doing that, I will let you know that this conversation will be a little bit different
from your conversation with Stephen in that it's a little shorter. The questions are a
little more straightforward and kind of lets you get the conversation where you want to
go. But this is kind of like a short update. So just so you understand kind of what you'll
expect to see in a segment. Before you start, as I told you, I don't know if I talked to
you on the phone, right? So this Saturday is going to be a big demonstration in Paris
in support of Mariam Rajabe's 10-point plan with our opposition. It's more than 100,000
people are expected to join us. So I'm going there on Thursday, I'm flying there Thursday
to attend that a lot of people from our community feelable when I'm from Chicago, a lot of
people are also going. So just wanted to let you know if you wanted to cover any of
that. That would be quite an event. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah, I can actually send some pictures
and videos after I come back or even during that time because I'm going to stay there
for a comeback the Wednesday after because there are a lot of meetings that's going to
happen between the leaders of opposition and the people. Just to tell them what this
status is. How long has this been planned? This was planned. This is a yearly event.
This is the memorandum of the political prisons that were executed in 1987, 30 more than 32,000
people, political prisons were executed in jail in Iran and every year this is happening.
It's been going on every year. So this is a yearly event. Okay. It just so happens to
kind of coincide with this latest. Yeah, it happened in 20th, around 20th June of this
year of, you know, in 1987. So every year, right around that time, they wanted to make
it a Saturday kind of. So it's day before or after something around that time. In 2018,
that event was in Bill Pant in Paris. And that's where the Iranian regime tried to bomb
that. I mean, that was big news to bomb that event. It was an indoor event. More than
100,000 people were also there. There were 600 dignitaries from the United States, from,
you know, Secretary of State, from Mr. Pompe, not Mr. Pompeo, but Rudy Giuliani and a lot of
the senators and congressmen were there as well. So it was, you know, it's an international
event, basically, all the supporters of the Iranian resistance are there. So since then,
we haven't had indoor like that because of the fear of that kind of event. It's been outdoor
and mostly been, you know, in the street rallies in the streets. So amazing, really quick. I'm
going to ask Andrew and Andy, are you guys ready? I'm going to add it away. Okay. Well, thank you
for that information about the Parisian giant event. It's super interesting. And as Marissa
said, particularly right now, you know, yes. But so I wanted to ask you about your take,
your opinion of this MOU that's been signed between the US and Iran.
Well, we don't know the details, much details. And as you know, it's been going back and for so
many times. So really don't know the detail. But what we have to realize is that this
cessation of hostilities, peace talks, whatever you want to call it, it's only possible with
freedom for the Iranian people. The nature of this regime has not changed whether what they're
doing is the result of basically military pressure. So they welcome war. They want war. They want
crisis. They want these kinds of things to suppress the internal aspirations of the Iranian people.
So they're there because they're forced to. The real fight is actually between the Iranian
people in this regime. Within the last four days, since Saturdays till Tuesday, they have executed
61 people, 61 prisoners. That is one every three hours. So they're very scared of the people,
and they're uprising, and they're organized resistance. That's why I try to intimidate
people by increasing number of executions in Iran. We welcome any effort to stop the
nuclear ambitions of this regime. Actually, the NCRI National Council of Resistance of Iran is
the one that in 2002 revealed the atomic sites and nuclear sites of this regime. So we welcome
that. But again, the actual fight, the actual peace will happen between the Iranian people
and this regime, and this regime is not capable of creating any lasting peace for the Iranian people.
We think any economic help to this regime will also will not benefit the Iranian regime,
as it did not in the past. During the Obama administration, $6 billion cash was given to them
besides another $40 billion that was given to them. The Iranian people did not benefit.
It's the IRGC, the corrupt system in IRGC, used it, and also it was used for the suppressive forces
of the regime against the people. They bought anti-riot weapons, you know, anything that you
can tell. They bought face recognition cameras and put it all over the streets. So we basically
think that as long as this regime is in power, peace will not be in the region. This regime will
find some way of cheating any agreement as they did before. So we need to support the Iranian people
to once and for all get rid of this regime that will bring the lasting peace for the Iranian people
and the region in general. How do you do that if the superpowers of the US and Israel
couldn't? Well, you cannot overthrow a regime with bombing, okay, from air. It's impossible,
especially a regime that's ideologically driven. You need the people inside Iran,
the organized opposition that we have. They know every way there is. They know the people inside
Iran. They know who is responsible. I mentioned that in your last interview that five days before
that attack that Khamenei was killed by the American, you know, the bombarded his compound,
the Iranian opposition, the MEK, the Mujahideen Haal, they attacked with 250 members,
attacked that compound. Unfortunately, about 100 of them died, but 150 returned to their
bases. So there is an organized opposition inside Iran, which is united with Kurds,
and Baluchis, and other minorities inside Iran, and they are the force that they need to overthrow
the regime. The regime cannot be overthrown with foreign intervention, especially from air. I mean,
they need more than 200,000 troops. It boots on the ground to do that because Iran is full of
mountains. It has 95 million people, almost, and it's a large country. So we need to rely on the
Iranian people themselves. So far, the West, United States, including United States and the
international community, they have been appeasing them all us. They need to recognize the right of
the Iranian people and their opposition to fight this regime and not help this regime. That's
that's the way to do it. Do you feel as though at this point the opposition is in a better place
to take over or not? It is, it is better. I mean, regardless of what, you know, the people who are
pro-war or pro-peace, the regime is much weaker. It has lost his leader. It has a son of that leader,
which we don't know even if he's alive or not. It has lost a lot of his military top ranked
officers. It is much weaker. Inside Iran, there's also a division between factions of
regime because some people are saying that why are we having a peace treaty with a country that
killed our leader? And then some people who know that they have no other way, they have to have
some sort of peace. Otherwise, they'll be, you know, in more shape. So the regime is much weaker.
The Iranian people are much stronger now and more organized. And there's a unity between
different factions and different minorities in Iran. You know, the last four uprisings in Iran,
one in I think was 2019, was for the gas prices that went up. In 2018, I think was price of chicken
that went up. In 2026, the last one that we saw, it was started from Bazar because of the price of
the dollar just increased a lot. So this regime is incapable of solving the Iranian people's
problems. So as long as the structure is corrupt and you cannot address the basic
needs of the Iranian people, these uprisings will happen. It's a matter of time. And this time,
people know that there is no help from outside. Some people were thinking that, okay, United
States will come bombard these and these guys will go away. And that's it. And they bring,
let's say, the son of a Shah, you know, that's not going to happen. The people of Iran need to
rise up themselves and they do have organized resistance. They need to basically get the
international community's recognition. That's what we need. We don't need any help, money. We
don't need any soldiers or boots on the ground from foreign powers. We need their recognitions
and their help to basically help the Iranian people. You spoke to conditions of the Iranian
people after all of this most recent warfare strikes, killings. What are the conditions
on the ground for the people in Iran? They are, they're much more self, obviously, financially.
The prices have gone up huge. I mean, they weren't gone up a lot and that people are
struggling. A lot of people are struggling financially. But I was talking to a couple of
people from Iran, they're hopeful. They know that they cannot wait for anybody from outside.
They need to do everything themselves. So they are hopeful. They were actually, I was a little bit
kind of down and I was saying, well, this always happened. You guys are okay. And said, oh, no,
we're great. Just, you know, we will make it happen. So there is despair as far as financially,
but they're hopeful that, you know, the Iranian people will overcome this regime. We have to,
because again, last 47 years, they have destroyed Iran. They have taken Iran back economically
about 100 years and people are fed up with it. Is there anything you'd like to add on this?
I want to basically let everybody know that, as I said, there's a organized and well organized
and opposition that we're going to have a demonstration in Paris this Saturday. More than
100,000 people are expected to attend. And we need to basically let the world and the people
of Iran and everybody know that this is happening so more people can join. So we have a better force
to overthrow its regime. All right. Well, thank you. And safe travels.
Thank you. We look forward to seeing some of what you might capture there.
Yes, I'll take some videos and pictures and I'll send you guys.
That was great. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. I will follow up to send you the segment when we air it this Friday.
Thank you, Marzia. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you, sir. Thanks.
Thank you. Have a good one. Bye bye.
You