Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Going to the Project hotline right now and welcoming back
to the show from the National Council of Resistance of Iran,
the NCRI Ali Safavi. I appreciate you returning the call.
I didn't know if I would miss you this morning.
These are as, I said, fluid days. These are crazy days.
(00:20):
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm doing fine. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Can you give me the latest? As I said, what
I was reporting at six o'clock this morning greatly changed
by seven o'clock this morning, and greatly changed by just
eight o'clock this morning. Where are things at right now?
This ceasefire looked like it was very much going to happen.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
What say you, well, I think the running regime, because
over its entire four decade rule has thrived on prices
making and causing mayhem and war in the region, perhaps
wanted to take one last. But clearly for them, basically
(01:05):
they are faced with the war of survival, and not
just so much because of what happened in the past,
the twelve Days, the obligation of the nuclear weapons program,
the elimination of the commanders. Basically, for them, the real
war is the war between this regime and the Iranian
people and the organized opposition which had been raging since
(01:29):
forty four years ago, and in fact, from our point
of view as the leader of the National Council of Existence,
missus Rajebi said yesterday that the ceasefire and peace is
a step forward toward the realization of the option that
we have put forth, which is changing this regime by
(01:52):
the Iranian people and resistance basically changed from bottom up,
not the other way around. And I think we workingtinue
to do what we have been doing over the past
few years to basically get rid of this tabutal regime
and being peace and security to the religion onto the world.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know, I've watched a few talk shows, you know,
American talk shows, talking heads, guys who know their stuff.
They didn't know their stuff much better than I even
and it was interesting. I saw one interview where a
politician was a guest on a show and he's like,
what really needs to happen in Iran is there needs
(02:32):
to be a regime change, which I've spoken with you
with several other guests from NCRI. I'm now hearing from
other people who are rising up in Iran and reaching
out to me on X and appreciating me spreading the
word like it's been forty seven years of us under
(02:53):
their rule. You know there's going to be an uprising.
And yet this one talk show host said, you know,
why do you want to topple the government? Why he
was almost in defense of the regime. Why do you
think that might Well that's how it came across to me,
he said, Well, his American view was why would you
(03:17):
want to topple a regime? How does he not see
that this regime is brutalizing its own people, the American people,
every chance it gets. What I wonder if you could
hazard a guess as to why he would say we
shouldn't want to topple this regime, We shouldn't want a
changing of the guard.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Two things come to mind. One, perhaps this individual or
expert or whoever he is, basically has bought the narrative
that if there is regime change in Iran, that chaos
will follow like it did in Iraq in Libya, which
I think is is the wrong analogy, because Iran is
(03:59):
one of the two nations states in them at least
that has several thousand year civilization, It has an educated population,
a very young population. More important than all of this,
it has a nationwide organized resistance with their identifiable leader
with a specific plan for the Iran tomorrow up. The
other option, perhaps is that this individual is a talking
(04:22):
kid for the iran In regime, because quite frankly, what
I just said about the narrative that Iran will become
Libya is something that the regime itself has been pushing
in Western capital, and they say, there's no Bible alternative
to our regime, so it's better that you engage us.
But clearly, I think the will of the Arena people
(04:44):
has demonstrated in five nationwide demonstrations in twenty seventeen, is
to get rid of the models and bring freedom and
democracy back to our great nation.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
They called him. You know some people in this media
day and age, which I believe I've been tagging you
Ali and again we're on with Ali Sofavi in a
lot of my posts. I don't know how often you're
on Twitter, you're on Ax, and you're paying attention, but
there's a lot of great conversation, a lot of great
dialogue happening on there. I wish more people were paying
(05:18):
attention to it outside of just Iran because we could
finally get somewhere, because a free Iran and Iran run
by a sane hah leader someone not blood thirsty. It's
in everyone's best interest. On social media that this rate
that this TV show host started being called and Iran sympathizer,
(05:43):
which isn't it was. It was an interesting term to
me because I'm one of the Iranian people, people who
have been under this this rule for forty seven years
and don't hate America, they don't hate Israel. They're afraid
for their own lives and livelihoods. I'm a sympathizer. They
might he was an Iranian supervisor of the regime, and
(06:04):
I just don't know how well naturally.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
And you may know the Ranian regime has insurrogates everywhere,
including in the United States, and on social media. You
may know that x and Facebook and other social media
platforms have taken down a lot of accounts that were
connected to the Iranian regime and insire army. They are
quite active and so but because you're after the correct
(06:28):
that no, if you will, Iranian would want to see
this regime continue even an hour longer, because as you said,
it not only brutalizes the Iranian people. One hundred thousand
executions in the past forty four years. Actually one of
them is my own brother, and thirty eight thousand were
massacred just in nineteen eighty eight. And of course you
(06:50):
mentioned it's crisis making in the Middle East, and of
course it's nuclear weapons program. So the Iranian regime is
really a major threat to the Iranian people and to
piece of security in the regional, in the world. So
it's everybody's interest to see this regime go. But as
I said, not through foreign wars, not through boots underground,
(07:10):
but by the Iranian people under organized resistance. And this
is something that we are not president today. Mariam jb
have been advocating all along.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I know, and that's why ceasefire. It's a great thing,
but it's really just the beginning the ceasefire. Am I
right to put it this way? If you don't mind
my calling you Ali not at all a ceasefire. Look,
that's great, that's great for the United States, it's great
for Iran, it's great for Israel. But that's when the
(07:40):
work begins for Iran. Like that, I think a lot
of people in the United States will just look at
that and be like, okay, good, No, that doesn't change anything.
The regime is still in power and until that changes,
So a ceasefire is the beginning of the heavy lifting
for i Ran.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Absolutely I could not agree with you more. I think,
if anything, now, twelve days on, the regime had a
merged out of this crisis much weaker. It has lost
dozens of its senior military commanders, it has lost its
(08:19):
nuclear weapons program. Many IRGC Revolutionary Guard garathons and bases
have been destroyed, and if anything, the Iranian people feel
more involved in and more empowered to carry on with
the task. You're absolutely correct that our work just begins
now because while there was war, naturally we wouldn't expect
(08:40):
people to come out because they had to be concerned
about saving their own lives. You may know that some
estimates say that five million Iranians in tia Ran left
the city because of the bombing. And so now the
regime has the answer to their Ina people, why did
you waste two trillion dollars of Iranian people's wealth on
(09:02):
this nuclear program which has now gone up in smoke.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I would imagine you've got friends, You've got family there, right,
I know you no longer live in Iran. I don't play.
Are you in Paris? Are you?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes, I am in Paris, but yes I have family there.
My brother is there. As I told you, my older
brother was executed by this region at the age of
twenty nine. And of course everybody is concerned about the
situation at home. But as you say, the work will begin,
and we have to work at it as we have
been over the past forty four years. And nobody's going
(09:37):
to give the freedom to us on a server planer.
We have to fight for it, just as American people
fought for it, and so we will get there. We
are working toward that, and I think what is needed,
quite frankly, is for the United States, for Europe to
equivocally support the cause of regime change in Iran by
ing people and by the organized resistance.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
That's what has to happen. Ali. I hope all your friends,
your family, I hope they're all safe. I hope you know,
I hope they emerge from this well and that there's
no further loss in your life. Sincerely, I hope that,
and I appreciate you taking time again this morning