the ongoing violation of human rights in Iran
Iranians gather in Paris to introduce their option
By:Heshmat Alavi
As the barbaric version of Islam is demonstrating its savagery, mainly highlighted by ISIS and militia groups in Syria and Iraq on the one hand, and as the June 30 deadline over Iran’s nuclear program is fast upcoming on the other hand, Iranian expatriates from across the globe gathered in their grand annual meeting in Paris on Saturday, June 13, to join their voices and introduce their option to tackle these two global threats.
The ‘grand gathering’ as it was called by the organizers, was held in a critical moment when Iran is at the heart of the two global threats. Tens of thousands Iranian expatriates were estimated to have taken part in this meeting mainly sponsored by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of democratic Iranian opposition groups. Hundreds of political figures from both sides of Atlantic including former political officials, diplomats, military officers, lawmakers, prominent jurists, mayors accompanied with tens of delegations from five continents had attended the gathering in order to add their voice to that of the Iranian people and the people of the region. The speakers and crowd were both frustrated over the current U.S. appeasement policy toward Iran over these two main global threats. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president elect of the Iranian resistance was the key speaker. She criticized the U.S. policy for offering concessions saying, “Unfortunately, Western states, especially the U.S. have driven this regime closer to the bomb through the violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and concessions to the Iranian regime.” She declared, “I would like to remind western governments that any agreement that doesn’t totally stop the [Iranian regime’s] nuclear weapon-building machine is unacceptable by the Iranian people and their resistance movement.”
She introduced her opinion on the fundamentalism as a global threat adding: “Regrettably, the current U.S. policy is misguided because it refuses to deal with the core of the problem and the source of instability in the region: the Iranian regime. ISIS emerged due to the crimes committed by Bashar Assad in Syria and Nouri Maliki in Iraq.”
The sky-high number of executions in Iran was also a dominating issue at the meeting. The recent brutal hangings were severely denounced. “Despite 1,800 executions during [Hassan] Rouhani’s tenure,” she said, “Iran is still in turbulence and turmoil.”
The motto of the gathering was “we can and we must” as it demonstrated the determination of Iranian people for regime change in Iran. The diverse Iranian communities that came to Paris pledged to topple the regime of the ayatollahs. The gathering was live-streamed on the internet and was widely reacted upon in social media websites, including Twitter and Facebook.