Protest on campus against diplomacy with Iranian regime

More than a hundred demonstrators from the Iranian community gathered on Thursday evening at K. P. van der Mandeleplein in front of the auditorium to protest a symposium about diplomacy in the Middle East.

On the Woudestein campus two worlds collided on Thursday evening. While a symposium on the role of diplomacy in the Middle East took place in lecture hall CB-1, outside a group of people with an Iranian background protested against any form of diplomacy with the current Iranian regime.

The event was organised by the Nexus Institute, which is not part of the university but has previously held events on campus. Diplomats Sigrid Kaag and Robert Malley were two of the speakers at the symposium.

A little over a hundred demonstrators gathered from 7pm on the square in front of the Theil building, which had been partially closed off from the afternoon as a precaution. The group chanted slogans against the current Iranian regime and its ‘lobbyists’. The protesters had brought large speakers to make themselves heard. People stamped their feet and waved flags and shouted slogans such as ‘regime change in Iran’ and ‘long live the king’, referring to the son of the deposed Iranian shah who says he wants to regain power in Iran.

More action

The group calls itself the Lion and Sun Revolution Group, referring to the flag of Iran before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. That flag was later banned by the ayatollahs. It was the first time the group protested on campus. The demonstration had been notified to the municipality and police were present on campus.

Negin Nafissi, spokesperson for the protest, explained why they were demonstrating: “The regime is built on lies and violence. They have killed thousands of people. Giving a platform to those who lobby for this regime means ignoring the voices of millions of Iranians.” Nafissi sees this demonstration as a response to that. “We want to be the voice for all these forgotten Iranians”, she said.

She herself was arrested by the morality police when she still lived in Iran. She therefore feels abandoned that an event like this is taking place at the university. “I live and work in Rotterdam. That this is happening in my own city is unacceptable.”

Pahlavi

The group supports Reza Pahlavi, the 65-year-old son of the last Iranian shah who was deposed in 1979. Pahlavi presents himself as a political leader who wants to transform Iran into a democracy. Earlier he criticised US presidents for not having had the courage to attack his country. He therefore hopes for more action from Israel and the United States.

Atti Bahadori, who was carrying a protest sign with a photo of Sigrid Kaag and the text ‘don’t normalize terrorism’, believes that people who are anti-Trump and anti-Israel are thereby also against the Iranian people. “By holding talks with lobbyists for the Iranian regime, as Kaag does, she legitimises these terrible monsters.”

Uncertainty about protest

For students on campus it was initially unclear what exactly was being protested. When it became clear that the demonstrators were, among other things, calling for more action from the United States and Israel, their surprise turned to anger.

Noa, a psychology student, was not happy with the protest on campus: “This is disgusting and makes no sense. The Israelis are doing exactly the same as the current Iranian regime.” She would’ve liked to engage in conversation with these people, but was afraid that she’d immediately be sent away or arrested by the police.

Symposium 

At the symposium Middle East Diplomacy: The Inevitability of Tragedy?, which took place on Thursday evening, top diplomats Robert Malley and Sigrid Kaag were guests. The American diplomat Robert Malley negotiated the nuclear deal with Tehran in 2015 on behalf of the Obama administration. Kaag is also a diplomat, former minister of Finance and former deputy prime minister in the Rutte IV cabinet. Until 1 July last year she was the UN envoy for the reconstruction of Gaza.

Diplomacy as the right answer

The participants in the symposium reacted briefly to the protest. At the start of the event, Rob Riemen, moderator and founder of the Nexus Institute, called the situation ironic. “These people come from a country where you have no rights at all, where you are indeed faced with a terrible regime. Now they make use of the right to protest here to say that one of our guests doesn’t have the right to speak.” According to him, the demonstrators would have done better to sit inside and ask questions, he said.

Malley said he understood that many members of the Iranian diaspora have reasons to be angry, but he defended the deal he struck with the Iranian regime in 2015. “Many of the protesters outside probably wanted what president Trump did: withdraw from the deal and impose maximum sanctions”, he says. “But look what has happened since then: the Iranian nuclear programme has grown exponentially and Iran’s behaviour in the region has only become more aggressive.”

He ended his response with the message that the Iranian people have indeed been abandoned. “But I do not believe that sanctions, isolation or war are the right answer. If you want to tackle certain issues, I believe diplomacy is the way forward.”