What is the People’s Mujahedin of Iran’s roadmap to toppling Tehran’s regime?

The annual conference of the National Council of Resistance of Iran began in Villepinte, Paris, on Saturday with the arrival of political figures, delegations from different countries and large crowds of Iranian opposition supporters.

Many supporters of the Iranian resistance from different countries, who spoke to Al Arabiya English, feel that this may be the last conference they attend and are eager to return home after the toppling of the Iranian regime.

For his part Iranian professor Sanabarq Zahedi, a leading figure in the council who heads NCRI’s Judiciary Committee, spoke to Al Arabiya English on the sidelines of the Free Iran Conference in Paris and said that the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MeK), – which lead the NCRI – has a road map to topple the Iranian regime, in which it will “expand the strongholds of the uprising” across Iran and to “form councils of resistance” inside the country.

On the brink of an Explosion

Zahedi added that “this year’s conference is marked by three points: First, the outbreak of the Iranian popular uprising on December 27, 2017, and its continuation in various forms without the success of the mullahs’ regime to suppress it, revealing that the Iranian society is on the brink of an explosions because of suppression and the deteriorating economic conditions”.

“Iranian citizens are aware that the regime of Wilayat al-Faqih is the source and main reason for all the economic, social, environmental, humanitarian, cultural and ethical problems they are suffering from,” Zahedi told Al Arabiya English.

“Secondly, the end of the policy of appeasement and western humiliation towards the mullahs, especially the opportunities given by the Obama administration which were considered by the mullahs as golden opportunity not only during the nuclear agreement, but also by paving the way for the Mullahs to expand at the expense of the people of the region,” Zahedi said, adding that the Iranian regime has lost a lot of its international credibility with the coming of the new United States administration of Donald Trump.

The third advantage, according to Zahedi, is “the start of a new phase of the activities of the Iranian resistance after the MeK members moved from Iraq to Albania where this organization in particular and the Iranian resistance in general, are working on expanding their activities within the Iranian society”.

Zahedi stressed that “the outcome of the interaction of these features and changes will be reflected in the annual conference of this year and make it a conference for the uprising, and the declaration of the democratic alternative is inextricably linked to each other as a single coin”.

Means of toppling the Iranian regime

In response to a question by Al Arabiya English regarding the organization’s program to topple the regime, he said that “the MeK and the Iranian resistance have always affirmed that they reject any intervention by a foreign power to change the regime on one hand, and on the other hand, were not counting on the lies of change from inside the regime itself under different terminologies like reformist, moderate and others... but always stressed that the regime change will be done only by the Iranian people and its organized resistance”.

According to Zahedi, this means that the popular movement is the basis for a regime change.

Council for the Resistance inside Iran

Zahedi stressed that “The MeK map depends on the expansion of the” strongholds of the uprising “as small but numerous engines scattered throughout Iran, which are driving large numbers of popular movements in different cities, as well as” councils of resistance “in various sectors and social classes.”

Scenarios for Iran’s Future

On the possible scenarios for the future of Iran, Zahedi said that “the system of the rule of Wilayat al-Faqih has lost its economic, political and social sustainability, and secondly it is living a serious crisis reaching a dead end in all fields”.

The second scenario, according to Zahedi, is that the regime will continue its internal and regional policies, thereby inciting the international community against it more and more, and consequently it will lead to a swift overthrow.

The head of the NCRI Judiciary Committee said that the chances of maneuver became almost non-existent for the regime, and that all these scenarios will lead to its overthrow.