Tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents gathered Saturday in Paris for a demonstration that was supposed to be filled with historic symbolism: a city synonymous with revolution and resistance hosting a massive call for the oppressive regime in Iran to be toppled.
Instead, French authorities banned the march.
The result was a confrontation that transformed the annual gathering of the world’s largest Iranian dissident group into a debate about France and whether the government of President Emmanuel Macron yielded to security fears or pressure from Tehran.
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, one of the central speakers at the rally organized by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, better known as MEK, used his remarks to criticize France for making what he called a “tragic mistake” by canceling the demonstration, which was intended to be the first large-scale MEK gathering since the start of the Israel- and U.S.-led conflict with Iran earlier this year.
“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,” Johnson told attendees, adding that he was “shocked and disappointed” by the decision to cancel the rally.
Johnson brushed aside official French explanations that the rally was canceled because of extreme heat or possible counterdemonstrations, instead accusing France of “bowing cravenly and capitulating” to Tehran by preventing the opposition from holding the public demonstration organizers had been planning for months.
According to MEK officials, French authorities initially granted permission for the march, then withdrew it shortly before the start. Organizers appealed, but the court upheld the ban after what MEK said were as many as 50,000 participants had already arrived in the French capital, and thousands more were reportedly turned away at Paris' airports.
Despite the ruling, "several hundred" demonstrators still gathered near the planned rally site, Place Vauban, according to news reports. MEK officials said police used force against peaceful participants, including elderly demonstrators and children, preventing them from assembling.
News reports said that French authorities said the ban was imposed for security reasons, while the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied the decision was the result of pressure from the Iranian regime.
MEK sources said at least 20 people were arrested and many more were injured, several of them badly.
Paris city hall and the ministry did not immediately return calls from Just the News seeking comment.
The confrontation gave added force to the message from Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the MEK. Rajavi said that Western governments have too often chosen either appeasement or military intervention rather than supporting an organized democratic opposition.
“The overthrow of this regime is the responsibility of the Iranian people and their organized resistance,” Rajavi said. “No one else can accomplish this task on their behalf.”
Rajavi rejected both continued clerical rule in Iran and a return to monarchy, referring to Reza Pahlavi, son of the Iranian shah, who was overthrown in 1979. She repeated her belief that Iran should move toward becoming a democratic republic through a provisional government that would organize free elections for a national assembly within six months.
Iranians in late 2015 began organizing against the Iranian authoritarian government largely over the country's struggling economy, and more specifically its currency. By February, the street demonstrations that started in Tehran's Grand Bazaar had spread across the country, which resulted in a violent military crackdown that killed thousands.
The U.S. has so far in its war with Iran – whose end is now being negotiated – has thus far had no interest in regime change and is not expected to change that position.
Other speakers Friday framed Iran’s struggle as part of a wider confrontation between democratic movements and authoritarian regimes.
Former Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba made the link between Tehran’s domestic repression to its support for Russia in that country’s war with Ukraine, saying that Ukrainians understood the pressure of being attacked by a regime that “deceives, threatens, kills, tortures, and has no moral limits.”
Former European Council President Charles Michel gave a similar warning from a European perspective, arguing that “appeasement of dictatorship does not work.”
The choice of Paris for the rally carried revolutionary symbolism, dating from France’s strong backing of the U.S. revolutionary war and the French Revolution in the 18th Century to the recent signing of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran at Versailles, near Paris, just days earlier and that led to a brief reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The two-day gathering in France, which includes speeches from former heads of state and government, ministers and cabinet secretaries, parliamentarians, and military commanders.
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