At Norwegian Parliament: Iranians want democratic change

NCRI – On November 7, Maryam Rajavi,  was invited by the foreign affairs committee of the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) to give a speech during its official session on the situation in Iran.

She was welcomed by a group of parliamentary deputies upon her arrival. The press had also come to produce their own reports. Hundreds of Iranians from Oslo had gathered in the morning outside the parliament to welcome the leader of the opposition.

Erna Solberg, first vice-president of the foreign affairs committee and leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party, chaired the meeting in the absence of Olav Akselsen who was abroad.

Among the parliamentarians present were Dagfinn Høybråten, chairman of the Christian-Democratic Party, Marit Nybakk, second vice-president of the foreign affairs committee from the Labour Party, and other members of the committee from the labour, conservative, liberal, left-socialist and progress parties, as well as the parliament’s international secretary.

The Resistance’s delegation led by Maryam Rajavi included Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI foreign affairs committee, Parviz Khazaï, representative of the NCRI in Nordic countries, and Elaleh Azimfar, member of the NCRI foreign affairs committee.

Oh behalf of the committee, Mrs Solberg expressed her delight to welcome Maryam Rajavi at the Stortinget and stressed that parliament was seriously concerned about the situation of human rights in Iran and the mullahs’ quest for nuclear weapons.

Mrs Rajavi thanked the Norwegian deputies for having resisted pressures by the Tehran regime. She said that the reaction of the mullahs, who greatly fear any meeting by the Resistance’s delegation with the Stortinget, revealed their weakness and the fragile state of their regime and demonstrated the influence of the Resistance on the situation in Iran. The mullahs were enraged to the level that they forgot all diplomatic norms, she added.

Asked what solution was best to face the mullahs and their threats to peace and security in the world, Mrs Rajavi said: Because of their incapacity to solve domestic problems, they now need, on top of internal repression, to create crises abroad.

Currently, this is a three-prong policy: obtaining the atomic bomb at all costs, stirring up hostilities in the regions and attempting to dominate Iraq.

Mrs Rajavi added that to fight this regime, which has become a real threat to peace in the world, there was a need for democratic change in Iran by Iranians and their organized Resistance. She repeated that a foreign military intervention, or the appeasement policy with its futile negotiations, was not a solution. There is a third option which is democratic change by the Iranian people and their Resistance.

The regime succeeded in using the good offices of the West by making it label the main opposition force with terrorism, thus containing the determining element of change in Iran, she added.

The President-elect of the NCRI called on the Norwegian parliamentarians to do everything they could to remove all the impediments that the appeasement policy had created for the Resistance.

The meeting also focused on the situation of Ashraf City in Iraq. Mrs Rajavi exposed the plots and pressures by the mullahs’ regime imposed against Ashraf and described the determination of the People’s Mojahedin in this bastion of liberty for Iran.

At the end of this official session, Mrs Rajavi and the vice-president of the committee, along with other parliamentary deputies, answered questions by the press.

Asked about the reaction of the Iranian regime’s ambassador, Mrs Solberg said that Mrs Rajavi’s invitation had taught the ambassador a lesson. Asked what message she had for the Norwegian government, Mrs, Rajavi said: “I came to inform the Norwegians and their leaders that the Iranian people suffer from repression, that Iranians do not want this regime, that they are against its atomic programs and that they demand democratic change”.

Hundreds of Iranians, who were waiting for her outside the parliament, gave Mrs. Rajavi an ovation as she left the Stortinget and covered her car with flowers.