PARIS (Dispatches) – French 
anti-terrorism police on Saturday dispersed a banned rally organized by the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group in central Paris, arresting around 20 people and dealing a humiliating blow to the violent organization’s leadership as it struggles to maintain relevance in Europe.
The gathering, which organizers had touted as a 100,000-person show of force, drew only a few hundred supporters to Place Vauban before police moved in, according to French media reports. 
The Paris administrative court had banned the event Thursday, citing “serious risks of clashes” with Iranian monarchists and the potential for public order disruptions “in the current particularly tense national and international context”.
The intervention marks a significant embarrassment for Maryam Rajavi, the MKO’s ringleader, who had poured millions of dollars into promoting the event. 
Video footage showed CRS riot police using pepper spray to disperse demonstrators, amid the deep and increasingly violent rivalry between the MKO and monarchist groups.
According to sources familiar with the court’s ruling, the ban was motivated in part by intelligence suggesting potential bomb attacks by elements linked to former SAVAK operatives – the shah-era intelligence apparatus – against the MKO gathering, reflecting the growing lethality of the feud between the two violent factions.
The Paris debacle echoes the MKO’s humiliating defeat on June 20, 2023, when Albanian anti-terrorism police stormed the group’s Ashraf-3 camp near Tirana. That raid, which injured 15 police officers and 21 MKO members, was launched over the group’s involvement in “terror and cyberattacks” against foreign institutions. 
The United States backed the Albanian operation, with a State Department spokesperson stating that Washington does not regard the MKO as a “democratic representative of the Iranian people” and remains concerned about allegations of abuse committed against its own members.
The MKO, which is designated a terrorist organization by Iran and was historically listed by the United States and European Union before being delisted in 2012 and 2009 respectively, has been involved in the killing of nearly 17,000 Iranian civilians over the past four decades. The group collaborated with Saddam Hussein’s regime during the Iraqi war on Iran in the 1980s.
The French government’s decision to ban the rally came hours after Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi about ending the war against Iran. 
Paris has previously faced criticism from Tehran for hosting MKO activities, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry describing the group’s continued presence in France as “a clear example of support for terrorism” and a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1373.