More than 200,000 people marched this Saturday, according to the organizers’ estimate – doubling their initial forecasts – through the streets of Munich to protest against the Iranian authorities. The demonstration took place on the outskirts of what is being held this week in the Bavarian capital, one of the most important foreign policy forums of the year.
The Munich Circle group has called for this march under the slogan “Human Rights and Freedom for Iran: International Solidarity with the Iranian People, taking advantage of the presence of political and military leaders from around the world in the German city. The Munich Security Conference, which opened this Friday and will last until Sunday, is considered the main world meeting of experts in security policies. More than 60 world leaders and around 100 foreign and defense ministers attend this edition.
Munich municipal authorities have reported that more than 15 additional conference-related demonstrations have been recorded for the weekend. The protests have represented an increase in work for the police. The conference venue, the luxurious Hotel Bayerischer Hof in the city center, is already a high security zone with road closures and police checkpoints.
who participated as a speaker at the Security Conference, was also at the demonstration. In his speeches he has said that a US military intervention in Iran could save lives and asked the Donald Trump government not to spend too much time negotiating a nuclear deal with the rulers of Tehran.
The exiled son of Iran’s ousted shah has told Reuters in an interview that there were signs the Iranian government was on the brink of collapse and that an attack could weaken it or hasten its fall. “It is a matter of time. We hope that this attack will accelerate the process and that people can finally return to the streets and lead to the definitive fall of the regime,” said Pahlavi, who resides in the United States and has lived outside of Iran since before his father was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Pahlavi has celebrated the work of the protesters, in Munich and other parts of the world. “Today, thousands of people from Munich to Toronto to Los Angeles have joined my call for a global day of action in solidarity with the Iranian people. They are sending a clear message to the leaders of Western democracies to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people.”
The opponent has spoken of an “hour of profound danger”, in which the world must decide whether to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people or whether to once again allow itself to be appeased by the Iranian leadership. “The fate of Iran is not just an Iranian issue. It is a decisive test for global security in our time. For almost half a century, the Islamic Republic has acted as a revolutionary enterprise, exporting instability through its proxies, undermining the sovereignty of its neighbors, fueling conflicts in various regions and advancing its nuclear ambitions,” he said.
“But something irreversible has changed,” said Pahlavi. “The struggle in my country today is not a struggle between reform and revolution. It is a struggle between occupation and liberation.”
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchí, has harshly criticized, in a message on “It is regrettable that the Munich Security Conference, which was normally considered a serious and prestigious event, has become a ‘Munich circus’ when it comes to Iran,” he wrote.
based in the United States, estimates the death toll at more than 7,000 due to the repression by Iranian authorities against anti-government protesters outraged by the precarious economic situation in the country. The riots broke out in late December and reached their most violent point on January 8 and 9. Although the protests have since subsided, activists continue to count deaths and fear the number could rise.
Iranian authorities at one point admitted the legitimacy of the complaints, but have blamed the unrest on groups organized and financed by the United States and Israel, as well as royalist factions from exile.
Shouts from the balconies of Tehran
Iranians shouted slogans again this Saturday against the Islamic Republic, although this time from their windows, more than a month after anti-government protests were extinguished with a violent repression that caused thousands of deaths.
The cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to (Ali) Khamenei!”, the supreme leader of Iran, were launched in unison from the windows and roofs of the houses in the north of Tehran around 8:00 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. in mainland Spain), according to EFE.
Among other slogans, “Long live the Shah!” and “This is the national slogan: pray, Pray Pahlaví!”, in reference to the son of the last Iranian monarch, deposed with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which gave rise to the clerical political system.
