Iranian Opposition Convention For Free Iran,Iranian opposition gathering in Paris, June 30, 2018
Every year, the Iranian opposition holds a massive rally in Paris to discuss the most important topics and events occurring in Iran. This year, the focus will be on the nationwide protests in Iran and support for the Iranian people’s desire for regime change and the establishment of a democratic state.
This very simple fact that there is an annual rally held by a resistance movement in the heart of Europe, shows the political strength countering the mullahs’ regime. This also shows the determination of an organized opposition movement standing out to bring about regime change in Iran.
The importance of the Iranian Opposition Convention
Free Iran, the Iranian resistance’s yearly convention plays an important role in achieving the goals of the Iranian opposition. First and foremost the rally symbolizes the legitimacy and capacity of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The gathering defies severe political and logistical constraints and the schemes and machinations of the Iranian regime. Any independent observer can confirm that an independent opposition movement that can hold such a large gathering of the Iranian diaspora, will be able to gather a very large base of support once it returns to its own country. Every year the Free Iran gathering explores the wide range of issues that the Iranian opposition faces. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the establishment of an Iran backed government in Baghdad Tehran’s main goal was to annihilate members of the mujahidin or MEK, who were in camps of Ashraf and Liberty in Iraq. During these years the main focus of the Iran Freedom gathering was the protection and security of MEK members in Ashraf and Liberty. The presence and participation of prominent political figures in the rally and their subsequent activities prevented the Iranian regime and its agents in Iraq, from secretly plodding against the residents of Ashraf and Liberty. These efforts culminated in the resettlement of MEK members from Iraq, to Albania. Another important feet the Free Iran gathering and the international support for the MEK helped accomplish, was the delisting of the MEK, from the list of foreign terrorist groups in the EU and the US a designation that had been part of the policy over rapprochement policy toward the Iranian regime. The Iran gathering, also discussed the Iranian regime’s suppressive measures against the people, imprisonment, execution of political dissidents, plundering of the country’s wealth and its violent intervention in countries of the Middle East region. An important part of the rally has always been support for the protests of the Iranian people. In 2009 the Free Iran gathering coincided with nationwide protests in Iran, and it became the biggest opposition rally in support of the uprising of the Iranian people. After the December 2017, January 2018 protests in Iran, the world witnessed that the Iranian people want nothing short of a regime change. Therefore this year’s gathering will be held with a focus on supporting the heroic uprising of the Iranian people and their just demand for freedom. Following the series of setbacks the reigning regime has faced in Iran and across the globe this year’s free Iran gathering will be a reminder of the true alternative to the autocratic rule of the mullahs. Under these circumstances, democratic change in Iran has become inevitable, and this year’s rally will be representative of the Iranian people’s will for the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime and the desire to live in a free and democratic nation based on the separation of church and state. Everyone can add their voices to this gathering and support the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran.
