Free Iran: Paris takes to the streets

Approximately 20,000 people gathered to express solidarity with the Iranian people and to demand an end to the Islamic Republic's theocratic regime.

The demonstrators called for the continuation of American and Israeli military strikes against the regime, viewing them not as acts of aggression but as a necessary catalyst for the fall of what they described as a "dictatorial theocracy" that has oppressed the Iranian people for over four decades.

The rally was organized by supporters of Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Iran and the most prominent figure of the Iranian opposition in exile, alongside other opposition groups united in their rejection of the clerical regime in Tehran.

The scenes in Paris told a powerful story: Iranian flags, portraits of regime victims, chants for freedom and democracy. For many participants, the current military pressure on Tehran represents the best - and perhaps last - chance to liberate Iran from a regime that has ruled through fear, repression and terror since 1979.

The message from the streets of Paris was unambiguous: the Iranian people do not want a negotiated survival of the Islamic Republic. They want its end.