Mass Paris rally urges EU terror listing for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
- ‘The main goal is to make EU ministers finally hear the voices of the Iranians,’ said Swedish MP Alireza Akhondi
- Thousands of demonstrators marched in Paris as Iran marked 44 years since the Islamic revolution that ousted the shah
Thousands of Europe-based Iranians, including relatives of victims of repression in the Islamic republic, lawmakers and campaigners, on Saturday urged the EU at a rally in Paris to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a “terror” group.
Speakers at the rally at Place Vauban in the heart of the French capital insisted that such a listing for the Guards was the biggest contribution EU ministers could make to help the protest movement that erupted in September.
The demonstrators chanted the slogan of the protest movement “Woman. Life. Freedom” and one of its anthems the song “Bella Ciao” as well as slogans against the Islamic republic.
“The main goal is to make EU ministers finally hear the voices of the Iranians,” Swedish MP Alireza Akhondi, a prominent voice in the campaign, told Agence France-Presse on the sidelines of the rally before giving an impassioned speech in Persian.
“We want to the Revolutionary Guards to be labelled as a terror group. It is the key point,” he said, saying he was “disappointed” with progress so far.
The protesters also urged European countries to cut economic ties with Iran over the crackdown on the protest movement, brandishing the slogan “your economic interests shed the blood of our innocent youth” against the background of EU, French and German flags.
The rally came as Iran marked 44 years since the Islamic revolution that ousted the shah with pro-regime rallies inside the country.