Supporters attended a rally in support of Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran near Paris on Saturday. (Reuters)
Source: International Herald Tribune, June 29
PARIS: Thousands of supporters of an Iranian opposition group called on the European Union and the United States to remove the organization from terror blacklists at a large weekend rally outside Paris.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran – an umbrella group based in Paris that includes the blacklisted People's Mujahedeen, or PMOI [MEK] – held the rally at an exhibition center in the northern suburb of Villepinte just days after Britain removed the group from its list of banned terrorist organizations.
A leader of the National Council, Maryam Rajavi, said the status of the member group in the United States and the EU was hindering its ability to fight for regime change in Iran.
In a speech at the rally Saturday, she called the terrorist labels "unjust."
"Do not deprive the world of the most effective means to combat the religious fascism and terrorism," Rajavi said. "Instead, side with those who can bring the Iranian people freedom."
Although the People's Mujahedeen participated in the Islamic Revolution in Iran, it later became opposed to the clerical government. Members of the group moved to Iraq in the early 1980s and opposed the Iranian government from there until the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
American troops have since disarmed thousands of members of the group, which says that it renounced violence several years ago.
The National Council that said more than 70,000 people had attended the rally, including many bused in from neighboring countries in Europe. Some participants arrived from the United States, Canada and countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, it said. There was no independent confirmation of the organization's crowd estimate.
British lawmakers removed the People's Mujahedeen [PMOI /MEK] from the country's terror list last Monday, giving it more freedom to organize and raise money in Britain.
Fifteen British lawmakers came to France for the rally, including former Home Secretary David Waddington, organizers said.
Waddington said in a speech at the rally that the British decision was "an important step" and that he had attended to "celebrate." "Now the PMOI [MEK] can get on with its work," he said later in an interview by telephone.