Supporters of the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) came from across Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia to join the rally at Place Schuman, as the foreign ministers from the unions 25 member states met inside the heavily-guarded building.
Dozens of parliamentarians, including members of the European Parliament and MPs from European countries, spoke at the rally, voicing strong support for the dissidents demand that the PMOI be removed from the EU blacklist.
Protesters held banners reading PMOI is not terrorist and said that the PMOI was blacklisted in order to placate the Iranian regime. They called for the PMOIs removal from the EU terror list.
The crowd of 25,000 Iranians, according to the organizers, stretched for about four kilometers through the streets of Brussels, as jubilant Iranians chanted, We want justice, we want peace; we want PMOI off your list.
The inclusion of the PMOI in the terror list was purely motivated by political considerations, said Behzad Naziri, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a coalition of Iranian opposition groups and figures, which includes the PMOI.
Following the U.S. governments recognition of PMOIs status in Iraq as protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the acknowledgement that after extensive interviews not a single member of the Mojahedin was found to have any links to terrorism, keeping the organization on the EU terror list would only encourage the Iranian regime to step up its export of fundamentalism and terrorism abroad, Naziri added.
Demonstrators also held street displays, including mock executions and a truck carrying an Iranian Shahab-4 missile.
