Despite the immense pressure by the Iranian regime on France to prevent the annual gathering of the NCRI, the event was attended by hundreds of distinguished personalities who participated and addressed the events.
Siavosh Rajizadeh <sianezam@gmail.com>
Day 1 began on Friday June 30 with a panel discussion about the right policy toward Iran with the participation of various experts from the EU, the UK, and the US.
Day 2 took place on Saturday July 1 with a major demonstration in Paris simultaneous with an event in Auver-sur-Oise “Free Iran World Summit 2023, Onward to a Democratic Republic” with the presence of distinguished personalities such as Mike Pence, Liz Truss, Mike Pompeo, and Bernard Kouchner but also a Bi-Partisan group from the US Congress.
Day 3 continued on Sunday July 2, “Democratic Republic in Iran, Imperative to Regional Peace, Stability” with the participation of delegations from Arab countries and finally
Day 4 was held on Monday July 3 where experts discussed the 1988 massacre of political prisoners by the mullahs’ regime. An event with the participation of distinguished guests such as the former secretary general of Amnesty International.
On June 19 Reuters confirmed that following a 90 minutes phone call between the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Iranian regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, France had banned the event.
Philippe Gosselin, French MP (Le Republicain) told Le Monde that the French MPs do not want the government to ban this gathering. “It would be the demonstration that the government is giving in to pressure from Iran and the mullahs,” he said.
In the end, (AFP and Figaro that the French judicial system authorized the event, calling the government ban “serious and manifestly illegal attack on freedom to demonstrate.”) the French judicial system authorized the event, calling the government ban “a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the freedom to demonstrate.”
The Guardian wrote that the “court also ordered the Paris prefecture to pay the organizing committee of the demonstration a fine of €1,500.” The NCRI told the Guardian that “Security being a ridiculous excuse, the reality was surrendering to blackmail by a regime that is the record-holder in executions and the godfather of international terrorism. The mullahs ruling Iran tried to involve foreign powers in suppressing the resistance. They received a worthy response from the Paris court.”
The Independent reported that “Thousands of Iranian dissidents crowded the streets of a Paris neighborhood on Saturday while western opponents of the government in Tehran gathered for a politically star-studded event aimed at poking a finger in the eye of the Ayatollah’s supporters.”
“Despite warnings from French authorities and the US Embassy in Paris that alleged threats of a terror attack made a large outdoor event unwise, there were no incidents over the weekend as Iranian dissident activists mingled with prominent current and former officials from the US, UK and other European nations. If that threat of a terror attack was real, it was hard to spot the concern of French authorities on Saturday, given that police did not provide more than a handful of officers to patrol the area, those on the scene told The Independent.”
The Guardian wrote in a second article about the NCRI’s event that Tehran is “kicking the can down the road” by claiming to be interested in some kind of JCPOA settlement, when meanwhile the regime has been developing nuclear weapons.
Following our major demonstration rally last Saturday in Place Vauban Paris, the AFP reported that the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani has strongly condemned France for “supporting terrorism.”
The fact that the Iranian regime fears an NCRI rally, 5000 kilometers away from Tehran, explains the constant enormous pressure of the Iranian regime on the Western government to restrict Iran’s main and most organized democratic opposition movement. The regime has failed inside the country to quell protests and the people’s anger and tries to discredit and limit the Iranian opposition abroad to survive.
The campaign of the Iranian Resistance, which has also garnered the support of 117 former world leaders, marks a new chapter in the struggle for freedom in Iran. This is the continuation of the activities carried out by the brave people of Iran during the Iran protests in the last months and who are making it clear that they are determined to overthrow the mullahs’ regime, and they will not go back to the shah dictatorship.
In this regard, The Washington Times reported that the “central message of the conference was that Western governments’ appeasement of Iran‘s authoritarian regime is unproductive and dangerous.”
The event also debunks once again the Iranian regime’s false narratives on MEK’s support among the Iranian diaspora. Despite the French court had authorized the rally only 24 hours before, thousands of Iranians headed to Paris from across Europe to join the event. Many buses from Scandinavia and flights from Canada, the United States, and Australia were canceled by Iranians due to uncertainty of the event until the last minute.
See below part of some of the media coverage and images of the event as attached.
Siavosh
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Siavosh Rajizadeh
National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
