As the European Union is looking to Ukraine, Iran is also pushing its way onto the political stage. Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s last Shah, is visiting Brussels after 6,000 people from the Iranian diaspora and their allies marched through the city on 20 February calling for democratic rights and more freedom for women in Iran, and for Europe to recognize the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.
The protest was supported by MEPs like Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew) and Charlie Weimers (EPP), as well as national parliamentarians like Darya Safai from Belgium, Theo Francken and Alireza Akhondi from Sweden. It was supposed to put pressure on the member states whose foreign ministers were meeting that day in the EU capital.