PARIS: An exiled Iranian opposition group that was the target of a failed bomb plot in France two years ago took its annual rally to the Internet on Friday as it sought to pressure the Tehran government despite the coronavirus outbreak.
The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to Shiite Muslim clerical rule in Iran, traditionally holds a mass gathering each year on the outskirts of the French capital.
The NCRI was responsible for arguably the most influential opposition move in years when it became the first group to expose Iran’s covert nuclear program in 2002, although it has since had a chequered record.
It says it has huge backing within Iran although analysts say its support is very hard to gauge. Its detractors have questioned the nature of the support that attends its gatherings, which usually draws thousands of people, and the motivations of its speaker list that includes a raft of former politicians and lawmakers.
Eighteen sitting US senators were among those who spoke on Friday as did US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has repeatedly backed the group.
The COVID-19 outbreak forced the NCRI to make the rally virtual. It said the event was connected to 30,000 locations within Iran and 100 countries across the world.
“The mission of our generation is to overthrow the mullahs’ criminal regime and to restore the trampled rights of all the people of Iran,” the group’s leader Maryam Rajavi said during the six-hour event.
The online rally comes just two days after an Iranian diplomat and three others were ordered to stand trial in Belgium over their role in a failed plot to carry out a bomb attack at the NCRI gathering near Paris in 2018.
The NCRI members joined the 1979 Islamic revolution but later broke from the ruling clerics. Based in Iraq in the early 1980s, their fighters clashed with US forces during the 2003 Iraq war, but have since renounced violence.
The group was once listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union but is no longer.
Tehran has long called for a crackdown on the NCRI in Paris, Riyadh, and Washington. The group is regularly criticized in state media.
Two years after failed bomb plot, Iranian opposition rallies backers online
https://arab.news/24m4v
Two years after failed bomb plot, Iranian opposition rallies backers online
- The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) traditionally holds a mass gathering
- It says it has huge backing within Iran although analysts say its support is very hard to gauge
UN chief condemns Israeli law blocking electricity, water for UNRWA facilities
- The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned on Wednesday a move by Israel to ban electricity or water to facilities owned by the UN Palestinian refugee agency, a UN spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the move would “further impede” the agency’s ability to operate and carry out activities.
“The Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations remains applicable to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), its property and assets, and to its officials and other personnel. Property used by UNRWA is inviolable,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said while adding that UNRWA is an “integral” part of the world body.
UNRWA Commissioner General Phillipe Lazzarini also condemned the move, saying that it was part of an ongoing “ systematic campaign to discredit UNRWA and thereby obstruct” the role it plays in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees.
In 2024, the Israeli parliament passed a law banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with the agency.
As a result, UNRWA operates in East Jerusalem, which the UN considers territory occupied by Israel. Israel considers all Jerusalem to be part of the country.
The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. It has long had tense relations with Israel but ties have deteriorated sharply since the start of the war in Gaza and Israel has called repeatedly for UNRWA to be disbanded, with its responsibilities transferred to other UN agencies.
The prohibition of basic utilities to the UN agency came as Israel also suspended of dozens of international non-governmental organizations working in Gaza due to a failure to meet new rules to vet those groups.
In a joint statement, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom said on Tuesday such a move would have a severe impact on the access of essential services, including health care. They said one in three health care facilities in Gaza would close if international NGO operations stopped.
