A few dozen green protesters managed to disrupt the Iranian ambassador’s garden party in the village of Neauphle-le-Château, west of Paris on Sunday.
Ambassador Seyed Mehdi Mir-Aboutalebi lost his diplomatic poise and charged the protesters who were peacefully standing on the other side of the street and chanting slogans. He was forcefully reined in by the police, as he was in a country other than Iran. A young man, identified by the protesters as the son of an Islamic Republic diplomat, was pinned to the ground and handcuffed. He was released minutes later and silently returned to the compound.
The garden party was part of the anniversary celebrations of the Islamic revolution which officially begin today, February 1. For the past thirty years, the regime has organized commemorations and ceremonies spread across what is known as the Ten Days of Dawn (NB daheyeh fajr). The events lead up to official demonstrations on February 11, the day Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979. The opposition has announced its intention to infiltrate official events and protest the regime during the ten-day period, especially on February 11.
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