Iran Opposition Group Rallies in Washington for Regime Change

Supporters of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq at a rally in Washington in 2013. (Reuters)
Supporters of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq at a rally in Washington in 2013. (Reuters)
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Iran Opposition Group Rallies in Washington for Regime Change

Supporters of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq at a rally in Washington in 2013. (Reuters)
Supporters of Iranian opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq at a rally in Washington in 2013. (Reuters)

Members of the Iranian Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group rallied in Washington on Friday for regime change in Tehran.

Clad in yellow vests emblazoned with the words "Free Iran," more than 1,000 members of the group gathered outside the State Department to demand an end to Iran's theocratic government.

After the rally, the demonstrators were to march to the White House to press their case.

"We have and will continue to declare that what we seek is the regime's overthrow, overthrow, overthrow," the group's Paris-based leader Maryam Rajavi said in a video message to the crowd, which also included current and former US lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Known as the MEK, the group has hosted Trump's hawkish national security adviser John Bolton at previous events and the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is a supporter.

Iran views the group as a threat, and last year its annual rally in Paris that Giuliani attended was the target of a Tehran-backed bomb plot that was thwarted by arrests.

An Austrian-based Iranian diplomat is being held in Belgium, where police found bomb material in the car of a couple of Iranian origin.

Friday’s demonstration comes amid heightened tensions between the US and Iran.

Trump said Friday that he had approved but then called off military strikes against Iran to retaliate for Iran's downing of a US drone in the Gulf.

The destruction of the drone was the latest in an escalating series of incidents in the Gulf region, a critical artery for global oil supplies, since mid-May, including explosive strikes on six oil tankers.



Spanish Foreign Minister Calls for Weapons Embargo on Israel 

Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters) 
Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Spanish Foreign Minister Calls for Weapons Embargo on Israel 

Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters) 
Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 2025. (Reuters) 

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called on Tuesday for a weapons embargo on Israel while the war in Gaza lasts and urged the resumption of talks on Iran's nuclear program.

"We are the largest trade partner of Israel in the world, the European Union," he said on Bloomberg TV. "We must impose, for our European partners, an arms embargo, not to sell weapons to Israel as long as this war continues."

He said he wanted the EU to act as it did after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to try to achieve peace.

The minister regretted there were no signs of de-escalation between Israel and Iran and called for a resumption of dialogue with Iran on its nuclear program.