We support the students' protest and the Iranian people's struggle for transition from the Islamic Republic to democracy!

3 secular democratic republican party’s statement in condemnation of government’s lies and secrecy

We support the students' protest and the Iranian people's struggle for transition from the Islamic Republic to democracy!

The policy of "no war, no negotiation" must stop!

After the Islamic Republic's confession to crash the Ukrainian aircraft by the Revolutionary Guards, the university students’ efforts to organize protests against government’s lies and secrecy up surged the nation’s uprising substantially. Students from Tehran universities and other cities have continued their historical tradition of being the voice of people against the regime's immorality, inefficiency, deceit, lies and crimes. Protests over the downing of the passenger plane is the continuation of popular uprisings in January 2018 and November 2019. In both occasions protesters security forces fired on the protesters and arrested many people.

After three days of denying and accusing the US government and foreign media of psychological warfare, the top political and military officials of the Islamic Republic were forced to conceal the truth. This happened after heavy external pressure, especially by the Canadian government, to provide definitive and undeniable documentation on the real reasons of the crash. As usual, the government tried to evade responsibility and eventually it was forced to accept the responsibility but under the pretext of "human error". However, the full extent of the disaster is still unclear, and the explanations of the leaders of armed forces are not convincing, the most important of which is a false allegation of deviation of its normal route by the Ukrainian aircraft. There is also the question of why the National Security Council had not issued a suspension on passenger planes flights after the rocket attack on the Ain al-Asad military base until conditions normalized.

On the other hand, Iranian airspace chief - Sardar Hajizadeh - claims to has noticed the big mistake soon after the firing missiles and he states that it has been reported it to the "top" officials. Hence, Ali Khamenei's refusal to act honestly as the commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces and other senior military and security officials demonstrates their deliberate deception. Furthermore, even if they had been informed later it doesn’t lessen their responsibility of telling the truth. On the contrary, it demonstrates their inadequacy to do their job properly.

Students and protesters have rightly pointed to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and its military-ideological arm, the Revolutionary Guards as the culprits of the crime. They demanded the change of the Islamic Republic's regime. The protests undermined all plans and political exploitation of Qasim Suleimani's funeral by regime, revealing Suleimani’s destructive role in domestic and foreign policy by chanting sharp slogans against him and tearing his banners.

Protesters' bombast and clear slogans point to the evolution of democratic struggles against the Islamic Republic which has systematically challenged Iranian peoples’ desire for peace and they have jeopardized the future of Iran.

The risk of military confrontation has now been reduced somewhat but the radical foreign policy of the regime continues to threaten the country. Therefore, the continuation of the policy of refusing to negotiate with US is against Iran's national interests. We must force the government to begin negotiations on a comprehensive platform to resolve the current disputes.

We, the three secular Democratic Republican organizations and Party condemn government for lying and concealing their criminal role in launching the rocket attack against the Ukrainian aircraft. We declare our support for the Iranian students' protests and campaigns to transition from current regime to democracy by non-violent procedures. The horrific act of downing of the passenger plane by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, we hold Ali Khamenei and revolutionary guard responsible. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, as the National Security Council chief should be also responsible for not stopping passenger flights after carrying out the attacks on US bases. The plane crash in reality became the true meaning of "hard revenge" slogan chanted after of Qasim Suleimani's death.

We believe that the uprising continues in future. It is a permanent fixture of our society until transition from the Islamic Republic to democracy. While we express our condolences with the families of this victims of this tragedy, we warn the Islamic Republic and the commanders of the military and security forces to stop killings, arrestment and violence against people. You cannot stop people for feeling anger and discontent. It is not too late to surrender to the will of the nation to save the country and transfer of power to the people.

Political-executive boards of:

United Republican of Iran

The Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)

National Solidarity of Iranian Republicans

Jan 13, 2020