Allies of US President Donald Trump pushed on Saturday for a regime change in Iran, saying that the recent protests in Tehran were promising for the country’s future. Former House speaker Gingrich and ex-New York mayor Giuliani told a rally of thousands of Iranian opposition supporters in Paris that Trump needed to turn up the heat on European countries still seeking to do business with Tehran despite reimposed US sanctions. "The only way to safety in the region is to replace the dictatorship with a democracy and that has to be our goal," Gingrich told the Free Iran rally, organized by exiled opponents including the former rebel Peoples Mojahedin, which is banned in Iran. He stressed he did not speak for the Trump administration, but added: "It seems to me there would be a rather happy celebration should regime change occur." Gingrich said he did not support arming the Iranian opposition, saying Trump should instead heap on more sanctions after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. And he blasted countries attempting to find ways to allow their companies to keep operating in Iran under the threat of penalties for US sanction-busting. "We need to have a campaign to shame the European governments who are unwilling to support freedom and democracy," Gingrich said. "We need to insist that they join the sanctions once again." Giuliani called for a boycott of companies "that continually do business with this regime". "Freedom is right around the corner," he added of the recent protests in Iran. Their comments came after US Secretary Mike Pompeo this week gave his backing to the strikes and protests over economic woes, not least the collapse of the currency following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal. On Monday traders at Tehrans Grand Bazaar staged a rare strike following earlier reports of street protests in provincial cities. Iranians have been hit by rising prices, and record levels of unemployment have left a third of under 30s out of work. The latest protests follow dozens over the new year which left at least 25 people dead. Later on Saturday, Giuliani said that Trump will suffocate Iran’s “dictatorial ayatollahs”, suggesting his move to reimpose sanctions was aimed squarely at regime change. He was addressing a conference of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella bloc of opposition groups in exile that seek an end to clerical rule in Iran. “I can’t speak for the president, but it sure sounds like he doesn’t think there is much of a chance of a change in behavior unless there is a change in people and philosophy,” Giuliani told Reuters in an interview. “We are the strongest economy in the world ... and if we cut you off then you collapse,” he said, pointing to protests in Iran. “Anybody who thinks the Ayatollahs are honest people is a fool. They are crooks and that’s what Europe is propping up ... murderers and sponsors of terrorism. Instead of taking an opportunity to topple them they are now left propping them up,” Giuliani said. Trump supporters have spoken at NCRI events in the past, including National Security Adviser John Bolton, who, before taking his post at the same conference last July, told the group’s members they would be ruling Iran before 2019 and their goal should be regime change. Bolton said in May that the administration’s policy was to make sure Iran never got nuclear weapons and not regime change.