Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said: The decision by the Council of Guardians again discredited those hoping for change within the illegitimate ruling dictatorship, reaffirming that any such expectation was but a mirage. The only option is to overthrow the mullahs by the National Liberation Army and to replace them with the NCR and its President-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.
Mr. Rajavi added: Out of the four candidates approved by the Council of Guardians, one is a council's member and the deputy head of the Judiciary. Another was the former Minister of Intelligence, i.e. the person directly responsible for the practice of torture by the regime's secret police. The third was the ex-Minister of Guidance who headed the regime's apparatus of censorship and false propaganda, and the fourth is the speaker of the mullahs' Majlis.
He added: Still, Khamenei emphasized that the world ought to know that should any of the presidential candidates show any leniency towards the enemies, their enmities and their stances, the people of Iran would never vote for them, meaning that in the next step his candidacy would be rejected.
The NCR President declared: Like the other sham elections in the past, this election will definitely be boycotted by the people of Iran. He added: Internationally, a correct policy entails severing diplomatic and trade ties with this regime, putting its leaders on trial in an international tribunal, referring its state-terrorism to the U.N. Security Council for punishment and global sanctions, and recognizing the right of the Iranian people and their just Resistance for democracy, peace, and regional and international coexistence.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
May 8, 1997
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