Former US vice president Mike Pence has said the "Iranian regime has never been weaker than it is today" in the wake of the protest movement that erupted in September.
"This is not just another protest but the beginning of a revolution for freedom," Pence, vice president under Donald Trump who is now seeking to challenge his former boss for the Republican nomination, told a conference in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris.
"One of the biggest lies the ruling regime has sold to the world is that there is no alternative,” he added.
Saturday’s conference was organized by the People's Mujahedin (MEK) group outlawed by Tehran, as thousands of supporters of the group staged a rally in the center of the French capital that had initially been banned by the police.
"No oppressive regime can last forever," said Pence who addressed the meeting in person and last year met MEK's leader Maryam Rajavi at its headquarters in Albania.
"Appeasement towards the mullahs' regime may lead to more bloodshed among our people," Rajavi told the meeting, while adding it would "be futile in protecting" supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "from his inevitable downfall."
