In the greatest gathering held in Paris by the Iranian diaspora on June 27, 2014, many political figures and dignitaries attended and delivered speeches. Following are excerpts of speech delivered by Senator Joseph Lieberman.

To the heroic people whose revolutionary uprisings collapsed the Soviet Union in the 20th century; to the people in the Arab world who have risen up for their freedom and opportunity in our time.

By choosing to be here today, you join that history and advance it because you and we are engaged in a historic struggle to liberate the people of Iran, a great nation with a proud history, from the evil regime that is holding them hostage, and we will do it.

Madam Rajavi referred to the religious fundamentalists who are temporarily at the head of the Iranian government. They are religious but in the American view, they are leading a government that is profoundly sacrilegious. And they are doing that because they are denying the people of Iran the human rights to life, liberty and happiness that the American Declaration of Independence makes clear is the endowment of every individual on earth, not from the government…

And so, I say today to the people of Iran, the people to the resistance, and I say it also to the tyrants who today rule over Iran: never forget resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

In resisting the current regime in Iran, we must be realistic, we must not close our eyes to what they do, or our ears to what they say. It is a year now since the soft smile of Rouhani has replaced the threatening grimace of Ahmadinejad. But I ask you my friends, has anything else about the policies of Iran changed in the 1st year? (Crowd: NO) I couldn’t agree with you more. Iran under Rouhani continues to directly support mass murder of the innocent people of Syria. Iran under Rouhani continues to fund and train violent, murdering terrorists in the Middle East and beyond. Iran under Rouhani continues to insist on maintaining its nuclear capability, and the systems and weapons to deliver it.  Rouhani continues to punish, imprison Iranians who simply want to speak their minds, and it does more than that, as Madam Rajavi said so powerfully, in increasing numbers it kills the dissidents by hanging.

…I want to thank you as an American, for all you have done to enable America to have the intelligence necessary to protect our people and our allies from Iranian backed terrorism and Iranian backed nuclear weapons. We could not do it without your help.