In a letter to Emmanuel Macron, Eric Ciotti, head of the Union des Droites pour la République (UDR), urges France to support the Iranian people amid intensifying protests against the Mullahs' regime, which has resulted in nearly 200 deaths according to an NGO. An ally of Marine Le Pen, he condemns the regime's oppression and calls for recognizing the opposition as the sole legitimate interlocutor.
Protests against the Iranian regime are intensifying, with an NGO reporting nearly 200 deaths. In response, Eric Ciotti, MP for the Alpes-Maritimes and head of the UDR, sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron on January 11. In this document, obtained by Le Figaro, he accuses the Mullahs' regime of having "confiscated the sovereignty of the Iranian people" and states: "This regime does not govern: it oppresses, it terrorizes. It does not represent the Iranian people: it holds them hostage".
Ciotti portrays the Islamic Republic as a system founded on "internal violence and external subversion," which has also threatened France through hostage-taking and diplomatic harassment. He stresses that France must "stand clearly alongside the Iranian people in this fight" for a democratic process. To that end, he solemnly calls on Macron to "recognize on behalf of France the Iranian opposition as the sole legitimate interlocutor for Iran's future".
The UDR leader criticizes France's ambiguity toward "one of the planet's worst dictatorships" and urges the European Union to list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. He concludes: "History will judge us on our clarity, our courage, and our fidelity to our values. It is watching us; let us not turn away."
Additionally, Bruno Retailleau stated in Le Point that France "must clearly support any credible alternative political solution." Ciotti's stance reflects broader political mobilization in response to the repression in Iran.
