Paris-Iranian exiles in grand rally

By Pejman Amiri

As the June 30 deadline over Iran’s controversial nuclear program is fast approaching, Paris hosted an Iranian Grand Rally staged on Saturday June 13. It was the ever largest rally of Iranian exiles according to the organizers. A giant hall in Paris hosted more than hundred thousand crowd, gathered in an annual meeting to pledge for regime change in Iran. The hall was full of joy and enthusiasm and could hardly room the crowd. The crowd seemed eager to cry out their desires for freedom and democracy as they had no other place to express their wishes.
The nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers, the prospect of Iran’s economic, social and sharp rise of executions, and the Iranian interference as the source of emergency of Islamic fundamentalism dominated the annual meeting. A wide spectrum of political figures, legislators, and military officers, and former diplomats, jurists from various tendencies from the United States and Europe and Middle East countries were taking part in the rally in solidarity with the Iranian exiles in a joint effort to promote democracy in Iran and peaceful coexistence in the region. Delegation and speakers from Free Syrian Army had attended the rally while its frontline troops have recently gained grounds.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the keynote speaker to the event, criticized the U.S. policy in respect with Iran’s nuclear program urging not to bargain away the human rights of Iranian people at the negotiation table. “If you do not want a nuclear-armed fundamentalist regime, stop appeasing it.” She warned the world powers, “Do not bargain over the human rights of the Iranian people and recognize their organized Resistance that is striving for freedom.”
She also spoke on the developments in Syria, Iraq and Yemen saying, “Today, the clerical regime has fallen into the trap of three regional wars, in which it can neither advance nor retreat.” She emphasized, “Although the clerical regime has spent billions of dollars annually to prop up Bashar Assad, today the Syrian dictator is gasping for air. I hope that on victory day, Khamenei joins Assad before the International Criminal Court for the slaughter of 300,000 Syrian men, women and children.”
Rajavi’s movement is the Iranian regime’s main opposition group, the MeK, Mujahedeen –e- Khalq or PMOI, which has its members accommodated in Camp Liberty, Iraq. The group has a proven track record of exposing the facts on the ground about the Iranian regime’s nuclear program through its network inside Iran.
Among prominent speakers in the rally were:
• Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor and Presidential Candidate
• Bill Richardson, former Ambassador to the U.N., U.S. Secretary of Energy, and Governor of New Mexico
• Gen. Hugh Shelton, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• James Woolsey, former CIA Director
• Louis Freeh, former FBI Director
• Tom Ridge, former Governor of Pennsylvania and first U.S. Homeland Security Secretary
• Ed Rendell, former Governor of Pennsylvania and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
• Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee
• Gen. George Casey, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff
• Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney General
• Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush
• John Bolton, former Ambassador to the U.N.

Pejman Amiri , Political and human rights activist who has fled Iran due to the repression of freedom activists.