Iranian dissidents protest outside Munich Security Conference

Critics of the Iranian government have warned of a wave of executions as they demonstrated against the Iranian regime outside the Munich Security Conference, which began on Friday.

Around 250 supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) rallied not far from where world leaders were gathering on Friday morning, calling on the United Nations and the participants at the Munich Security Conference to take more consistent action against the state leadership in Tehran.

Protesters decried the brutal record of the Iranian government, and said that at least 83 people were executed in the month of January alone.

Since the outbreak of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, there have already been as many as 400 executions in Iran, according to the activists.

"The international community must urgently take effective measures to stop the ongoing wave of executions in Iran," said a participant at the demonstration.

The protesters demanded that the European Union add Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the EU's terrorism list, reactivate the UN sanctions against the Iranian nuclear project and classify the Iranian government as a threat to world peace.

They also called on world leaders to recognize the struggle of anti-regime activists and demonstrators within Iran.

The NCRI was founded in Paris in 1981 with the goal of ending Iran's theocratic government.

The Iranian government, like Russia, was not invited to the Munich Security Conference, which is scheduled to run until Sunday.

The gathering brings together hundreds of world leaders and top officials, as well as experts in security policy and foreign affairs.

Among the guests are US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.