PARIS — Tens of thousands of Iranian exiles from across Europe gathered in a Paris suburb Saturday to cheer on the Tehran demonstrators.
The rally, organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was framed to associate the widely contested exile movement with the protests that erupted in Iran after the June 12 presidential election, which opposition candidates have deemed fraudulent.
“I want to recall that we fully agree with annulling the results of the election masquerade, which we had called on people to boycott from the very beginning,” the council leader, Maryam Rajavi, said in a 90-minute speech interrupted by supporters shouting, “Down with the dictators.”
The council, which claims to represent dozens of groups, grew out of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq movement, which the United States describes as a terrorist group.
But the council has become the largest and most organized opposition group abroad.
Rajavi and the more than 80,000 people bused in for the rally seemed to find hope and encouragement in the explosion of protests. She hailed the demonstrations as “a new era of resistance for freedom” and “the beginning of the end” for religion-based government in Iran.
