MEK Presence in the Massive Event Roused Ire of Iran Regime

http://irannewsupdate.com/blog/3947-mek-presence-in-the-massive-event-roused-ire-of-iran-regime.html

A massive gathering of the Iranian diaspora was held in Villepinte Exhibition Centre, near Paris, on Saturday, July 1, 2017 to show their support for PMOI / MEK, the main opposition to the Iranian regime and advocating adoption of a firm approach toward the theocratic regime in

NCRI and MEK supporters say their organization is the most influential on the Iranian opposition landscape. Based on Washington Times report covering the event no one in the Iranian opposition “stands out the way the NCRI stands out” in terms of their “day to day engagement with the Iranian public,” says Ramesh Sepehrrad, a longtime Iranian-American women’s rights activist, who works with George Mason University’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Ms. Sepehrrad told a panel ahead of the rally in Paris that it’s difficult to measure the NCRI’s popularity inside Iran because the “regime has made the price very, very high for the Iranian people to express their support” for the movement. “Thousands of their supporters and their family members have been executed and imprisoned by the regime,” she said.

Aware of the consequences of the MEK event in Paris, the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited France just before the event and reportedly asked the French authorities to ban the activities of MEK (that are all legitimate and within the law). His attempt to extend the regime’s repression of the MEK from Iran to the heart of France failed.