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Iranian Opposition Held Largest Ever Gathering Outside Iran

Iranian Opposition Held its Largest Ever Gathering Outside Iran

By Abbas Rezai
June 28, 2012

On Saturday 23 June, the Iranian opposition held its largest ever gathering outside Iran.

The event was held in the enormous Parc des Expositions halls at Villepinte, north of Paris. Around 100,000 participated in the rally, according to the organisers' estimate.

Over 500 prominent political personalities, parliamentarians and jurists from 40 countries and five continents were present.

More than 1300 coaches had been chartered to carry a portion of participants from throughout Europe to the venue. "This is separate from people who used local transport, personal vehicles or took flights," one organiser said. "Over 350 hotels are booked in Paris suburbs to house participants who had come from a long distance. Some of the hotels are as far as three hours away from Paris, including in Calais, near the English Channel and near the border with Belgium."

See the crowd: www.youtube.com/watch?v=19fWxXau4tc


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Speakers from US included former Democratic Party Chairman Gov. Ed Rendell, former US Ambassador to UN Gov. Bill Richardson, Congressman (1995-2011) Patrick Kennedy, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and President Obama's first Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip J. Crowley.

Other Speakers from Europe included European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of Italian Senate Emma Bonino, EU Commissioner (1999-2010) Günter Verheugen, Former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, French Foreign Minister (2005-2007) and UN Under-Secretary-General Philippe Douste-Blazy, former Director of French Anti-Espionage agency Yves Bonnet and German Bundestag Speaker (1988-1998) Rita Süssmuth plus a long list of parliamentarians from other European States.

Members of Parliaments from Afghanistan, Jordan, Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries also addressed the gathering.

The keynote speaker of the event was the Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, who is elected by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the Iranian parliament in exile, as "president for a six-month transitional period after the fall of the mullahs."

During her speech Mrs Rajavi challenged the 'appeasement policy' conducted by the West in the vain hope of containing Iran's nuclear program. "Those who try to portray the nuclear threat as not important are betraying their own people and the whole world. Those who depict the world as having no solution in the face of mullahs' nuclear threat are guilty," she stressed. "It is possible to put an end to nuclear threat of this regime; the sole solution is a regime change." She emphasised that regime change is "the entire responsibility of the Iranian people and their Resistance."

Addressing the Iranian youth, Rajavi said "The mullahs have created a thick barrier of suppression before you which has no precedence in the current world. The goal of ceaseless executions is to intimidate you. The regime wants you to believe that paying the price for freedom is futile. But backed by a struggle lasting more than a century, you are from one of the richest nations in the world when it comes to endeavour for and the capacity for change." Rajavi added "You are also relying on an organized movement whose goal has never been to achieve the power at any price; but rather to guarantee freedom, democracy and equality at any price."

The rally also highlighted the plight of 3300 Iranian refugees who have been based in Iraq for the past two decades and are currently under pressure to move from their home in Camp Ashraf to Camp Liberty near Baghdad airport. They are reportedly denied basic humanitarian needs even at their own expenses.

European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras addressed the people in Ashraf and Liberty. "I am glad you can see us now and be encouraged and proud of this huge gathering," he said. "We have the moral duty to fight alongside you. We will not stop pressing for your rights to be respected."

He also called for action by the international community. "We need action; Action by the Iraqi government to treat the residents of Liberty according to the principles of humanity and respect of human rights; action by the United Nations to accelerate the procedure of granting refugee status to the residents; action by the European Union to accept their resettlement in Europe. No more excuses; no more delays; no more lies; no more appeasement; action! We want action from Mrs Ashton."

Struan Stevenson, who chairs European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq, told the rally of an incident that happened last week. A group of Iraqi government officials had come to Brussels for meetings. "They wanted to attend the routine monthly meeting of my Delegation for relations with Iraq. I made a background check and realised that the delegation includes the notorious Colonel Sadiq, who has been indicted by the judges in Spain for his complicity in the alleged murder of 47 people in the two massacres in Camp Ashraf and his involvement in torture and oppression," Stevenson said. "The Parliament's security officials stripped Sadiq of his security pass and did not allow him in the building." "We do not welcome alleged murderers in the European Parliament."

"Now, we have sent a lesson back to Iraq, because Sadiq was later arrested here in Paris. I can assure you that Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki will think twice before he sends someone like that to Brussels again."

He continued: "But you know the appalling thing about this whole episode was that on Monday there was a press conference in Washington at the State Department, and an anonymous official told the press that the United States was proud to support this Iraqi delegation coming from Baghdad to Brussels. Indeed Ambassador Dan Fried, the US special envoy for Ashraf, had even flown across the Atlantic to meet the group and attend their meetings."

Stevenson was supported by Vidal-Quadras: "We were indeed very shocked when we knew that Colonel Sadiq who conducted attacks against Ashraf, shooting dead dozens of unarmed civilians, was part of this Iraqi delegation to the European Parliament," the Vice President added. "We did not allow him into the Parliament, mostly for environmental reasons! Because in the European Parliament we like to breathe clean air."

Vidal-Quadras also addressed the Iraqi Prime Minister rebuking him for sending "criminals" to the European Parliament. "Our difference is that you put criminals in command of top jobs while we put them in prison!"

ENDS

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