PARIS — Several thousand Iranians came from across Europe to rally in Paris on Saturday, calling on world leaders to put greater pressure on the Islamic Republic’s ruling clerics.

“Instead of appeasing the mullahs, [the international community] should stand side by side with the Iranian people,” Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told the rally.

The NCRI is the political wing of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK), which Tehran regards as a terrorist group.

The US listed the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997, but delisted it in 2012, citing a more recent renunciation of violence.

Iran’s opposition abroad has been emboldened by the fall in late 2024 of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a longtime ally of Tehran.

Several speakers at Saturday’s rally voiced hopes that US President Donald Trump’s promise to exert

© The Times of Israel