The People and Defense remove Rosbeh Parsi from the list of speakers

Protesters stormed the events he attended and there was a campaign on social media claiming he was championing the cause of the Iranian regime. On Sunday, Folk och Försvar’s board of directors chose to cancel Parsi’s participation in the organization’s national conference.

“gets the wrong focus”

Goran Arios is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Folk och Försvar. And he maintains that it was a very difficult decision.

– We have seen that there are member organizations considering not attending the national conference if it is present. The second is that we have seen that there is a risk that there will be significant public opinion against his involvement and it will be the wrong focus.

Rosbeh Barsi is Program Director at the Foreign Policy Institute (UI), a member organization of People and Defense. Parsi was invited to the People’s and National Defense Congress to speak on sanctions as a tool for security policy.

Falk and Forsvar believe they have not received any evidence that Parsi supports the regime in Iran, but still chose to delete his material from the program while noting the consequences his involvement might lead to.

“problematic situation”

You found no evidence for these accusations, but you still wrote off his involvement. Doesn’t that send the wrong signals?

– It is a problematic situation and I think there is every reason to discuss such issues in the future. But unfortunately this is the world we live in today, says Goran Arios.

Roozbeh Parsi believes he has some understanding of the decision, but maintains that he would have liked to see critics provide concrete evidence.

– If they have arguments or can substantiate their claims, they should at least present it to the organization, says Rosbeh Barsi.