Fabio Rampelli, Vice President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies, said that support for the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom must go beyond political declarations and be translated into concrete international measures to protect protesters, prosecute those responsible for repression and executions, and prevent the clerical regime from using war and nuclear blackmail to preserve its rule.
Rampelli made the remarks during a major conference at the Italian Parliament attended by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, as well as numerous members of Parliament, senators, and prominent international figures.
During the conference, a statement endorsed by a majority of members of both chambers of the Italian Parliament was formally presented. The declaration condemned the regime’s execution campaign, demanded an immediate halt to the killings, and supported the Iranian people’s struggle to establish a democratic republic rejecting both the mullahs’ dictatorship and any return to the Shah’s dictatorship.
Rampelli described Iran as an ancient nation with a rich cultural heritage and a predominantly young population that has been denied fundamental political and social rights for decades by a dictatorship operating under the cover of religion.
He said successive uprisings and widespread protests had exposed the structural weakness of the ruling establishment and its inability to address deepening economic and social crises, including inflation, currency depreciation, and the rising cost of food, medicine, and housing.
The coordinated response of the police, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and other armed institutions, he said, demonstrates that violence against protesters is not the result of isolated misconduct but an official and systematic state policy.
From Political Solidarity to Practical Protection
Rampelli said the international community requires more effective mechanisms to protect protesters, political prisoners, and the families of victims of repression.
He referred to measures adopted by the Italian Parliament, including a unanimous December 2022 resolution by the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Committee calling on the government to act bilaterally and through international institutions to stop the execution of peaceful demonstrators.
He also stressed the importance of extending the mandate of the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran. Documenting crimes, he said, is essential to ensuring accountability and preventing impunity.
The international mission should monitor mass arrests, unfair trials, the confiscation of dissidents’ property, and systematic discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or political opinion.
Rampelli said the regime’s exploitation of wartime conditions to accelerate executions and conduct exceptional trials reveals the direct connection between foreign aggression and domestic repression. A government unable to confront public anger, he argued, creates external enemies to justify violence and close society.
Preventing Nuclear Weapons and Confronting Regional Threats
Rampelli stressed that Iran’s ruling theocracy must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. He called for full and verifiable compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and transparent, unconditional cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He said the regime’s military programs, proxy militias, and threats to maritime navigation and energy security endanger not only the Iranian people but also Middle Eastern stability and the global economy.
Years of concessions, he said, have failed to moderate the regime’s behavior. Instead, they have provided additional time and resources for repression and regional expansion. Diplomacy must therefore be combined with firm measures depriving the regime of the means of terrorism and blackmail.
Rampelli described Britain’s designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization as an important step and urged European Union member states to adopt a similar position. The IRGC, he said, is the backbone of domestic repression, transnational terrorism, and the regime’s nuclear and missile projects.
Sanctions Against Perpetrators, Not the Iranian People
Rampelli supported the extension of European sanctions against those responsible for repression, including asset freezes, travel restrictions, and action against financial networks linked to the IRGC and security institutions.
He emphasized that these measures must not target ordinary Iranians. They should be carefully directed against security and intelligence commanders, judges responsible for death sentences, and military officials involved in killing demonstrators or carrying out terrorist operations abroad.
International accountability, he added, should also include those responsible for repressing women, persecuting ethnic and religious minorities, and torturing political prisoners. Systematic crimes, he said, cannot be erased by the passage of time.
Supporting a Democratic Alternative
Rampelli said the parliamentary majority’s statement sent a clear message that the solution to Iran’s crisis lies neither in foreign war, the continuation of the existing regime, nor the restoration of the Shah’s dictatorship. It lies in a democratic republic freely chosen by the Iranian people.
He described Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan as a clear framework for democratic transition based on free elections, the separation of religion and state, gender equality, abolition of the death penalty, judicial independence, respect for the rights of ethnic and religious communities, and a non-nuclear Iran living in peace with its neighbors.
Genuine change, he said, will emerge from inside Iran through the convergence of popular uprisings, the organized resistance, and the Resistance Units. The international community’s role is to defend the people’s right to resist and prevent the regime from crushing the uprising through executions and mass violence.
Rampelli concluded that determining Iran’s political future is the exclusive right of the Iranian people. Democracies, however, cannot remain passive while those demanding freedom face bullets and the gallows.
“We must create an international environment that protects the protesters, holds the perpetrators accountable, and supports a genuine transition to a free and democratic republic,” he said. “Standing with the Iranian people is not interference in their affairs; it is a defense of freedom, human dignity, and international law.”
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