Protesters have stormed events he attends and there has been a campaign on social media claiming he is on the cause of the Iranian regime. On Sunday, the board for Folk och Försvar chose to cancel Parsi’s participation at the organization’s national conference.
“Gets the wrong focus”
Göran Arrius is chairman of the board for Folk och Försvar. He emphasizes that it was a very difficult decision.
– We saw that there were member organizations that considered not coming to the national conference if he was there. The second was that we saw that there was a risk of a large public opinion against him being involved and it would be the wrong focus.
Rouzbeh Parsi is employed as a program manager at the Foreign Policy Institute (UI), which is one of People and Defense’s member organizations. Parsi was invited to the People and Defense National Conference to speak about sanctions as a security policy tool.
Folk and Försvar believe that they have not received any evidence that Parsi supports the regime in Iran, but they still choose to delete his item from the program with reference to the consequences that his participation risks leading to.
“Problematic situation”
You have found no evidence for the accusations, but still write 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 that’s the world we live in today, says Göran Arrius.
Rouzbeh Parsi believes that he has some understanding of the decision, but emphasizes that he would have liked to see the critics present concrete evidence.
– If they have arguments or can substantiate their claims, they should at least present them to the organization, says Rouzbeh Parsi.