Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sharply criticized the French government’s decision to ban a major rally supporting the Iranian opposition, calling the move unjustifiable and politically motivated. Speaking at the Free Iran World Summit in Paris on June 20, 2026, Johnson dismissed official explanations—including weather and security concerns—as “nonsense” and “pathetic.”
He suggested the cancellation reflected undue pressure from Tehran, pointing to reported high-level contacts between French officials and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Johnson described the decision as a “craven” concession that silences pro-democracy voices at a critical moment.
Emphasizing that meaningful change must come from within Iran, Johnson drew parallels with the end of apartheid in South Africa and the fall of Soviet communism. He expressed strong support for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), highlighting Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan as a viable roadmap toward a democratic future.
Labeling the Iranian regime as repressive and reliant on fear, Johnson urged Western governments to amplify, rather than restrict, the voices of Iranian freedom advocates. He stressed that supporting these voices abroad is essential to advancing democratic change inside Iran.
.@BorisJohnson, former UK PM: We are here to support the values at the heart of Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan: equality for women, an independent judiciary, human rights, free speech, and freedom from arbitrary detention and torture. #FreeIran10PointPlanhttps://t.co/g3ONtB4sLc
— Iran Freedom (@4FreedominIran) June 20, 2026
Excerpts of Boris Johnson’s speech follow:
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
It is a huge honor to be speaking here today with such distinguished former colleagues: Charles [Michel], Dmytro, and brilliant former parliamentary colleague David Jones. And the former Speaker of the House of Commons, ladies and gentlemen, John Bercow is here.
Mr. Speaker, we’ve had some wonderful speeches already, and I hope you will allow me just a few minutes; I promise to keep it very brief.
I am, above all, honored to be speaking in the presence of so many wonderful people from Iran, and to be supporting Iranian freedom and your fight for democracy, human rights, and free speech.
We are here for all the things that Charles [Michel] mentioned in Madame [Maryam] Rajavi’s brilliant Ten-Point Plan—equality of the sexes, an independent judiciary, the right not to be detained arbitrarily or tortured—all the essential freedoms and values that we believe in and that are treated with daily contempt by the regime in Tehran.
I listened to the brilliant analysis of the [French] deputy [Christine Arrighi]. I was shocked and disappointed by the decision of the French authorities to cancel this rally. They can’t cancel it because we’re all here, but they tried to prevent us from having a rally.
We heard all sorts of nonsense, did we not? Last night, I was told that the problem was that it was going to be too hot, and that the police had decided it was dangerous for us to assemble in the heat.
How pathetic! Would we be put off by a bit of heat? Of course not! Pas peur de la chaleur! No problem.
Then, we had this cock-and-bull story, this absolute nonsense from the authorities this morning that there was some threat of a counter-demonstration, violence, or argy-bargy. What absolute nonsense! I think it was brilliantly analyzed and dismissed by our French colleague [Christine Arrighi].
We know the truth. We know why we’ve been prevented from having a proper rally of the kind that was two months in preparation by Madame [Maryam] Rajavi and others.
It was because the French Foreign Ministry got on the blower, as we say, to Mr. Araghchi in Tehran, and then they decided that, on the whole, it would be more politic not to allow the Iranian opposition to assemble in that way.
Former 🇬🇧 PM @BorisJohnson eviscerates France’s FM @jnbarrot for cancelling the NCRI’s Free Iran rally at the behest of the mullahs’ regime
“The French government has BOWED CRAVENLY and CAPITULATED to a regime in Tehran that tortures and kills its opponents”
CC: @FrenchResponse https://t.co/winCZC2g3X pic.twitter.com/rzkzYwpmHq
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) June 20, 2026
In so doing, what has happened, be in no doubt, is that the French government—and forgive me, I love Paris and I agree with every word that Charles said about Paris—has bowed cravenly and capitulated to a regime in Tehran that tortures and kills its opponents on an industrial scale.
This is a regime that authorizes the murder of young women simply for wearing head coverings of a kind they do not approve of, and that has massacred 40,000 innocent people in January of this year.
For half a century, it has promoted an agenda of terror and mayhem across the entire Middle East, and indeed exported it around the world in the name of a crazed theocratic ideology, which I hope you are going to expel. It is wrong.
Listening to the speeches, listening to what I’ve heard from Madame [Maryam] Rajavi, I think you will succeed. I know it.
It would be wrong at any time to suppress a legitimate, principled demonstration of political opposition to the regime in Tehran. People should be entitled to say what they think about the IRGC and all the sinister apparatus of repression that exists.
But it is doubly wrong to do it now, at this absolutely critical moment, because we need to hear the Iranian voices of opposition to that regime in Tehran. And the Iranians need to hear your voices. People in Iran need to know that they have your support.
Iran stands at a crossroads. As Charles [Michel] rightly said, after three months of bombardment and three months of war, we’ve proved that Tomahawks alone cannot secure freedom for the people of Iran. We’ve proved that it can’t be delivered by the Pentagon. Change must come from within, and it will come from within.
It will come because the people of Iran—a brilliant, young, highly educated people—want to choose a different future for themselves and their families. That will be an absolutely irresistible process.
It will be like the moment when other terrible ideologies were brought down in my lifetime. I remember some of the greatest political events in my lifetime, when the apartheid regime in South Africa was brought down by the general will of the people.
I remember when the communist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were all overthrown, not by an external agency, but by the uprising of people who could simply take it no longer and wanted a better hope for their families and children.
When it happens—and it will happen—it will be a glorious event for the world because it will be the moment when Iran, this ancient, wonderful, beautiful country, is finally reintegrated into the fellowship of nations. That will be a fantastic thing, not just for Iran, but for the whole world.
The people of Iran, those brilliant people, finally need to be given the chance to express themselves freely, to take part in the global economy, and to get rid of this odious and cowardly regime.
It is vital that they in Iran hear the voices of freedom raised in their favor around the world. It is vital that they see there really is a democratic alternative and that it has support.
That is why I think it was such a tragic mistake to cancel the rally today and try to stop us from meeting in the way that they did.
That is why I am so proud to be speaking today in support of the Iranian people and in support of freedom in Iran. It’s a simple point, but if the voices of freedom are to be heard in Iran, then we in the West must allow those voices of freedom to be heard in our capitals and around the world.
Thank you very much for your bravery. It is going to be rewarded. Your country is going to be free. There will be a free Iran.
Next year, if not in Villepinte, then let’s meet in Tehran.
Thank you.