World Summit 2023 and crowds in Paris for a free Iran
Eminent international leaders and policymakers gathered on 1 July under the title "World Summit for a Free Iran 2023" at the headquarters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Auvers-sur-Oise. At the same time, a large rally of Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance was held in Paris, united to show their support for the NCRI's plan for regime change in Iran, aimed at bringing freedom and democracy. As in previous years, the religious dictatorship did everything in its power to prevent this.
Less than a month ago, Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, declared at Khomeini's tomb: 'Today we have thousands of pockets of resistance in the mosques and assemblies of our country. We see how young people are rising up to defend security". The Iranian regime has deployed at least four intelligence agencies, the Revolutionary Guard, the Bassij militia and the army to suppress the uprising. So what is Khamenei afraid of that he wants to form 'resistance nuclei'?
Nine months have passed since the start of the popular uprising in autumn that shook the foundations of power in Tehran. Although demonstrations are not seen as before, Khamenei and his regime are well aware that this is the calm before the storm. The authorities have realised that each time an uprising is put down in blood, the next, more dynamic and powerful one hits the regime to weaken it further. This fear of the next revolt manifests itself in the numerous chemical attacks that continue to be carried out against girls' schools, in the hope of terrorising the population and preventing them from rising up.
The authorities know that they are no longer in a position to quell the uprising once and for all, because fear has changed sides. The regime has officially announced that it has released 22,000 of the estimated 30,000 protesters detained by the Iranian resistance. The rest, still in prison and under torture, belong to the Resistance Units affiliated to the People's Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), the democratic opposition. In addition, 3,567 PMOI supporters disappeared during the protest movement, without a trace.
Despite these disappearances and arrests, the uprising and resistance continues. Resistance Units have grown by 500%, while a wave of attrition and defections is undermining the government.
A regime at a dead end
Repression is no longer effective. The regime is at a dead end because any reform needs a modicum of freedom to quell some of the discontent. But this minimum of freedom will kill it. That is why he has turned to Western countries like France and the US to try to rein in the PMOI.
"Less than six months ago," wrote the official Fars news agency on 26 June, "in the midst of the combined war, the People's Mujahedin boasted of conquering Iran, but today their dream of conquering Tehran has been dashed, their Tirana killing field has fallen and they have been destroyed".
The only reason the mullahs pleaded with France and the United States is because they felt the wind of the revolutionary forces blowing in their sails. Especially because the vanguard of this movement is made up of women who are brimming with anger and hatred against this misogynist regime.
Why are Khamenei and his president so fearful of a PMOI demonstration 5,000 kilometres from Iran and advocate preventing it? According to reports from circles in Tehran, Ebrahim Raissi's 90-minute conversation with President Macron focused almost exclusively on the PMOI and how to restrict its fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression.
The Iranian regime's main TV channel sums up the mood of the theocracy perfectly: "This painful scene, which tears the heart of every friend of the Islamic Republic of Iran, took place yesterday, July 1. Mike Pence, Pompeo, John Bolton, Elizabeth Truss, the British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, French Foreign Minister Kouchner, the Canadian Prime Minister and dozens of Prime Ministers, ministers and senior generals came to Maryam Rajavi's headquarters. While claiming that Rajavi and the PMOI are the only organised and powerful force to overthrow this innocent regime, they supported the destructive operations of the PMOI elements inside the country, which are multiplying dangerously".
The dictatorship's dissatisfaction with the success of the Free Iran 2023 Summit is bluntly expressed:
"At the same time, tens of thousands of Iranians, deceived by the PMOI's trickery and seductive words, demonstrated in the centre of Paris, shouting slogans against the Supreme Leader and even against the deposed Shah. Despite the fact that the national media and the authorities had announced that Macron had promised the president to prevent this demonstration".
As a reminder, the rally for a free Iran was initially banned by the prefecture, under pressure from the Iranian regime:
"Unfortunately, we have witnessed how the PMOI has once again insidiously used the Paris court against the government of this country and has once again obtained authorisation to organise its demonstration against Iran. In less than 24 hours, it sent an avalanche of tens of thousands of malicious elements from all over Europe to Paris".
And the Supreme Guide boasts of blackmailing Western governments by demanding the release of prisoners it has had captured and used as hostages.
"Meanwhile, all we have left is the diplomacy of Ibrahim [Raissi], who has released imprisoned French and European spies in exchange for banning PMOI demonstrations, and all we have obtained are doubts and even more frustration, which are eating away at the revolutionaries and militiamen of the Bassij like gangrene these days".
The days of this regime are numbered. But it is important to denounce and discredit the lobby it has created, especially in France, by playing with a distorted image of the painful reality facing the Iranian people. The duty of the French authorities is not to hinder the activity of the Iranian Resistance, but to recognise it as its privileged partner, because it is with it that a free, democratic, peaceful and pluralist Iran must be realised.