Iranian expats in Britain rally in support of anti-regime protesters in Iran

Iranian expats gathered on Sunday in the British capital London to express support for the anti-regime protests, which have in recent days spread to over two dozen cities across Iran. People in Iran are increasingly protesting against both the financial crisis and the lack of freedom under the oppressive Islamist ayatollah regime. 

Some 100 Iranian pro-democracy demonstrators gathered outside the British Prime Minister’s residence on Downing Street. The event was organized by the Association of Anglo-Iranian Women in the UK. 

“It is really important that we show our solidarity with the people of Iran,” the 65-year-old protester Zohreh Zanjani in London told the news outlet AFP. 

“We are trying to make a bridge between the people inside Iran and outside of Iran,” she continued. Zanjani praised the protesters in Iran that are currently risking their lives while fighting for freedom. 

“So people like myself, we get courage from the people of Iran’s resistance, and of course they get courage from seeing that their voices have been heard outside.”

The widespread protests in Iran have also inspired younger members of the Iranian diaspora. Omid Ebrahimi, a 28-year-old doctor who was born in Iran and moved to the UK as a child, explained that he is “very hopeful” when he sees the protests in Iran. 

“Once again, the Iranian people have shown that this is a dictatorial regime that they do not want,” he told AFP. 

“Everyone is using this as an opportunity to voice their dissent towards this regime… they know the price for freedom but many of them, they don’t have a choice. They don’t see any other alternative [than] to rise up and get rid of this regime, whatever the cost may be,” Ebrahimi explained. 

38-year-old Fara Hosseimi was born in the UK after her parents moved to London after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. She joined the pro-democracy rally in London “to show my solidarity with the people of Iran.”

“It’s really reached a turning point in the sense that it’s not just the women and the youth anymore that are rising up against the Iranian regime,” she explained. “It’s people from all walks of life, including the merchants, who are historically quite conservative and quite pro-regime, really. So I think it’s reached a point of no return." 

Supporters of the deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and his U.S.-based son, Reza Pahlavi, gathered in a separate rally in London. 

U.S. President Donald Trump recently warned the Iranian ayatollah regime that the United States could intervene militarily if the Tehran regime kills peaceful protesters in Iran. 

“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 

Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed the United States and Israel for the anti-regime protests across Iran. 

“With statements from Israeli officials and Donald Trump, what was happening behind the scenes has become clear. We distinguish between the position of the protesting merchants and the actions of the sabotage elements, and Trump must realize that U.S. intervention in this internal matter will lead to destabilizing the entire region and destroying American interests,” Larijani wrote on 𝕏.

However, the dramatic U.S. miliary intervention in Venezuela on Saturday and the capture of Venezuela’s leader Maduro have likely increased fear among senior Iranian regime officials.