Juno News - Should Canada support an Iranian uprising？ (Feat. John Baird)

00:00:00.000 on the weekend i was supposed to be covering the free iran global summit an event put on by the

00:00:15.120 national council of resistance of iran and the mek which is the people's mujahideen organization

00:00:20.800 of iran and this summit was to be dedicated to the iranian resistance those seeking to replace the

00:00:27.360 current brutal iranian regime which as we know has no respect for religious minorities no respect for

00:00:33.440 gay rights no respect for women and is increasingly threatening other states in the world notably israel 1.00

00:00:40.480 and the united states is the largest state sponsor of terrorism no shortage of reasons why the iranian

00:00:46.480 regime has to go i will say that what was fascinating in talking to some of the dignitaries that were

00:00:51.680 there and for the most part they were there to listen but some of them have become very supportive

00:00:57.600 and very much not members but certainly very uh much champions of what the mek and ncri are doing

00:01:04.240 and one of those is stephen harper who again has been quite a well-regarded speaker when i i told

00:01:09.120 people i was canadian they said oh you know do you know stephen harper and i said well i don't

00:01:12.480 i don't know him and then they of course realize i'm a nobody but i said no i've interviewed him and

00:01:16.640 i i certainly know of him and i've followed his participation here john baird is someone i i have

00:01:22.560 talked to on a number of occasions and he's a very passionate supporter of human rights around the

00:01:28.000 world john baird served as canada's foreign affairs minister big supporter of israel big supporter of the

00:01:35.120 iranian resistance and he's become a big supporter of the mek now i want to qualify something here and

00:01:41.520 that i've been speaking very favorably about the stories that have been told about the invitation

00:01:46.560 that i got to see some of this firsthand but what's interesting is that this is not an organization

00:01:52.000 without controversy until 2012 it was on the terrorism organization list in canada in the

00:01:59.120 united states in the united kingdom but i did speak to john baird about that and more broadly whether

00:02:04.880 this is an organization that is influential in the resistance and whether it actually has the capacity

00:02:11.280 to do what they're all talking about which is wanting to end the regime as it currently stands

00:02:16.560 why are you here first off i'm here to stand in solidarity uh with the people of iran and their

00:02:21.120 great struggle uh to break the yoke uh of a brutal government uh by the molas in tehran and uh and to

00:02:28.560 promote that there is a better future for the people of iran uh you know terrorism is the great struggle

00:02:32.880 of our generation my grandfather went to world war ii uh to fight uh fascism and stayed in the canine

00:02:38.720 forces for 25 years uh and to fight communism the great struggle of our generation is to fight to

00:02:45.520 terrorism and iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism everywhere in the world but the big

00:02:50.880 victims of terrorism are the iranian people themselves and i'm inspired by their courage and

00:02:54.560 bravery a decade ago this organization was on canada's list of terrorist organizations and that

00:03:01.440 of the united states and the united kingdom and elsewhere and that changed while you were in government

00:03:06.720 while stephen harper's government was in power what was it that led to that change and and how do you

00:03:13.520 go as you know the foreign minister of a country that view this as a terrorist organization to being

00:03:18.160 here as a guest now i mean what is it that what is it the country's got wrong well i i think if you

00:03:22.560 look at both uh the harper government and the obama administration uh looked at the facts and made

00:03:27.760 a determination that it uh it may have been at some point in the past but it certainly wasn't uh going

00:03:32.560 forward and the fact you have a conservative government canada and a liberal democratic government in

00:03:36.480 uh washington both do the same things speaks to the speaks to the most important thing the truth

00:03:41.200 i'm inspired by uh the national council resistance of iran's 10-point plan uh democracy human rights

00:03:46.400 the rule of law a gender equality no nuclear no nuclear weapons uh stopping the export of uh of 0.79

00:03:53.520 terrorism in the region and around the world uh these are what these are what people in the west

00:03:57.840 have wanted to hear for a long time the last few conferences i know the last two have been online when

00:04:02.720 speakers like stephen harper like you and other dignitaries have come they've they've all spoken

00:04:07.520 about what feels like an imminence of being able to bring this organization back to tehran

00:04:12.080 and have this event there and i guess what i would ask you is how close to that reform do you feel

00:04:18.240 iran is and what's missing what's that spark that's needed to really get that change in the

00:04:23.120 regime the regime is noted if you look at the facts on the ground this regime it's at its weakest point

00:04:27.920 in more than 40 years uh that we were briefed uh yesterday on the 5 000 resistance units in every

00:04:36.320 corner of the country uh when when change happens when regimes fall it'll happen very quickly uh and

00:04:43.280 there's no doubt we're getting closer to that day look at how quickly the berlin wall fell and eastern

00:04:48.080 europe uh got freedom uh the same will be the case in uh in tehran uh the irgc is starting to uh to crack

00:04:55.200 uh the um the uh the government is afraid the fact that they uh were scheduling a terrorist attack

00:05:00.960 on ashraft 3 uh this weekend uh showed how much they fear uh this uh this uh organization the fact

00:05:08.320 that they have a law in iran that doesn't allow a woman to run for president says they're afraid

00:05:12.240 uh madame rajavi when you look at some of the changes in in the arab world let's talk about israel

00:05:19.280 having all of these normalized relationships and new diplomatic relationships with their countries

00:05:23.920 the traditional allegiances are very much changing and i was wondering if you saw

00:05:29.360 a potential for change in the way the arab world engages with iran well listen i mean uh we should

00:05:35.680 look at uh iran's nuclear program and support for terrorism almost exclusively through the lens

00:05:41.680 of israel but you look at the sunni arab guelph countries who uh when i was foreign minister and

00:05:46.080 stephen harper's prime minister we had an unprecedented warm and constructive relationship really

00:05:51.120 phenomenal saudi arabia especially the united arab emirates and bahrain to name just a few of the

00:05:56.080 gulf states um they live right across the gulf from uh the the mullahs in uh in tehran and so they're

00:06:02.720 every bit as afraid of this uh of this uh regime as uh as we are and of course canada with the uh

00:06:08.720 explosion of the ukrainian plane killing some killing dozens and dozens and dozens of canadians

00:06:13.600 uh and even more canadian residents uh it shows you that we're not immune from the terrorism that 1.00

00:06:20.480 this regime uh uh supports around the world that was not an accident uh it was a deliberate attack

00:06:26.160 and so now we've been drawn in directly as victims of uh of this uh of this uh uh of this terrible

00:06:33.840 government i recall when the former harper government ended diplomatic ties with iran there was some

00:06:39.040 pushback domestically from from the political left and i was wondering if you felt looking

00:06:44.080 back on that quite vindicated with how iran has continued to go down i'll start off with everyone

00:06:50.080 thought that our strong and unequivocal support uh for israel uh would kill our relationships with

00:06:56.240 the arab world i think when we left office in 2015 we had a not a good relationship with the arab world we

00:07:03.280 had a phenomenal uh relationship with the arab world our relationship with the united arab emirates with

00:07:08.320 jordan with saudi arabia with bahrain uh with the morsi uh the our our support of the morsi

00:07:15.040 governments being ejected from egypt uh our support uh of the mission in libya uh whether it's algeria

00:07:21.360 morocco i could go on and on it was really unprecedentedly uh positive and of course uh we

00:07:26.320 share the uh with uh with both israel and the uh the arab world uh our fear uh of uh of terrorism and

00:07:32.400 a nuclear-armed iran i think it brings us all uh brings us all together uh to fight for what's right

00:07:37.040 what do you think the role is beyond statements of support for countries like canada in what this

00:07:44.560 organization is advocating i mean i think everyone generally agrees that regime change has to be

00:07:48.960 pushed from within but but what support if any new they should be coming from canada and the global

00:07:53.440 community i think we've i think we all uh most of us at least would acknowledge that uh military

00:07:58.720 backed regime change by force uh doesn't work i think we saw that regrettably uh in iraq having said

00:08:05.520 that we've got to stand with the people in the resistance you know frankly whether they're

00:08:09.760 monarchists whether they're union members retirees teachers uh the mek is obviously the the biggest

00:08:15.360 and best organized of all the organizations uh it won't be it won't be western governments that

00:08:20.400 choose the next uh uh government of uh iran it'll be a democrat choice and i look at the the 10 points

00:08:27.040 in uh the ncri's plan i think uh canadians and the canadian administration should support each and

00:08:32.240 every one of them and when the people of iran begin to uh begin to uh do the final uh push to

00:08:38.640 freedom uh uh those of us outside whether it's in the west the arab world uh or israel should uh

00:08:45.040 should support their aspirations and do all we can to help i know that the the jcpoa was not a

00:08:50.640 canadian initiative but there have still been especially since the biden administration took over

00:08:54.960 in the united states perpetual rumblings about a reinstitution of that do you feel that form of

00:09:00.160 agreement with iran should even be on the table well i just think you've got to work knowledge that

00:09:04.800 the government of iran can't be trusted we cannot take the mullah's word there's a long history with

00:09:11.840 the last nuclear containment agreement where they broke the rules the stash of documents that was

00:09:18.000 obtained by by bb netanyahu's administration in israel showed the plan to lie and to cover up

00:09:26.560 the uh the mullahs in the tehran only respond to one thing and that's uh tough resolve uh and we

00:09:34.240 can't show weakness i i admire uh john carey's attempt to uh to have a diplomatic solution i think

00:09:41.520 he was well-intentioned and i have great respect for him and his leadership in this regard i just think

00:09:46.160 uh we've got to we've got to be much more forceful if we want to get iran to take a different path thank

00:09:51.440 you thank you thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by donating to true

00:09:56.800 north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - July 27, 2022

Should Canada support an Iranian uprising？ (Feat. John Baird)

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