IRAN’s president has not changed the clerical regime’s vision of dominating the world of Islam, an international conference has heard.

Julio Terzi, a former Italian foreign minister, told the Free Iran gathering in Paris – organised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the country’s opposition in exile – that Europe’s approach did not take account of the regime’s aim of strengthening the power of their feared revolutionary guards (IRGC).

He said: “The policy of appeasement at all costs that European Governments are carrying on is based on false assumptions.

“[Iranian president Hassan] Rouhani is part of the leadership with [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei and hasn’t changed the vision of dominating the world of Islam. The regime is focused on strengthening the power of IRGC.”

Terzi said the only way to deal with Iran was by continuing to pressure Rouhani and Khamenei, and added: “It is completely wrong to pursue other ways such as increasing cooperation across the board, such as cultural fields, or intelligence cooperation, as the Italian Government is pursuing.”

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the main rally today, among them a six-person delegation from Scotland which includes former SNP MPs Paul Monaghan, Roger Mullin, Michelle Thomson and Corri Wilson.

Monaghan said their interests mostly centred on human rights, but several had worked in the Middle East and others had an interest in the impact of the US-Iran nuclear deal under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Events are moving quickly in the region and President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA will have a potentially serious impact on the economy of Iran and the ability of people to continue living in the country,” he told The National. “Each member of the delegation will attend the conference in a personal capacity to update their knowledge and understanding of recent events.”

He said the west had a history of being unhelpful to the Iranian people – beginning when the UK assumed ownership of Iran’s oil and exploited its natural resources, which only ended after the Second World War.

“Iran holds one of the world’s largest reserves of oil and gas and should be among the top five wealthiest and most highly developed countries on the planet. We have to ask ourselves why the ordinary people of Iran live in poverty despite their vast wealth in natural resources.

“There is also the question of nuclear weapons. The current theocratic government of Iran has wanted to develop nuclear weapons in the past and this has, quite rightly, been fiercely resisted by western governments.

“Many people in the international community with knowledge of Iran would like to see the West work in a more participative way with the people of Iran to rebuild their democracy, their economy and ensure that the country is both politically stable and socially sustainable.”

Monaghan added that the regime’s use of the death penalty was also a major cause for international concern.

“Literally hundreds of people, including juveniles and pregnant women, are executed each year for quite arbitrary reasons and often in public without a meaningful trial,” he said. “One objective of the conference is to promote understanding of the scale of executions and the use of other forms of torture that the people of Iran are routinely subjected to.”