Iranians rally in Sweden and Finland to denounce Javad Zarif’s presence

On Wednesday 1st June, a rally was held in Sweden by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK). They gathered outside the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm to protest against the presence of Javad Zarif, the Iranian regime’s foreign minister, according to an article by the NCRI.

They “called on the government of Sweden to precondition any improvement of political or economic relations with the mullahs’ regime to an improvement in human rights in Iran and in particular a halt to executions”.

“The Iranian protesters reiterated that Zarif must be held accountable for the regime’s crimes and export of terrorism and extremism.”

The day before Zarif was in Finland. Again, supporters of PMOI / MEK and NCRI rallied in Helsinki to protest their disproval of his presence in the country.

An NCRI article states that the protesters “urged the Finnish government to focus on human rights in its relationship with Iran”. They called on the government to ensure that the human rights situation in Iran improves, including a complete halt to executions.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights situation in Iran and Amnesty International have said that the mullahs’ regime executed around 1,000 people during 2015 – a record high for the past 25 years. Iran is also the country with the highest number of executions per capita.