Rome, 23 July (AKI) - A leading Iranian dissident, Maryam Rajavi, said on
Wednesday that the international community must support Iran's resistance
movement if it wants to deal with the country's nuclear programme.
Maryam Rajavi, who is the elected president of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, made the remarks at a media conference at Italy's lower
house of parliament on Wednesday.
"It [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government] is a 21st century
dictatorship, so weak and so in contrast with the international community, that
if it takes one step back, it will dissolve," Rajavi told Adnkronos
International (AKI)…
She is in Italy in a bid to garner support so the PMOI is no longer listed in
Europe as a terrorist organisation. She was invited by Italian MPs to make her
remarks in parliament.
She was in France earlier this month where she obtained the support for the
group from 290 French parliamentarians .
On Wednesday she received a document signed by a majority of Italian
parliamentarians, from across the political spectrum, giving her support for the
cause of democratic change in Iran.
Rajavi told AKI that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme would
not bring about concrete results…
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said that Iran would not give up even "an inch" of
its nuclear ambitions. He made the remarks in a televised speech to thousands of
supporters in the southern town of Yasouj.
Rajavi told AKI that the West's negotiations with Iran "only served to
prolong an unacceptable situation that allows the Ayatollahs to buy time (to
continue their nuclear programme)".
"Any form of negotiation with Iran is useless. The international community
must take very serious decisions in regards to Iran," said Rajavi.
"That serious decision does not mean a war, but it also does not mean
negotiations. It means support the Iranian 'resistance'."
Rajavi was referring to her NCRI group. She also made clear that political
change in Iran must come from within.
In her statement at the media conference in Italy's Chamber of Deputies,
Rajavi thanked the Italian parliament for its declaration of support for
democracy in Iran.
She thanked Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Pope Benedict XVI
for refusing to receive Ahmadinejad during the Iranian leader's visit in June to
attend the summit organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization to discuss the global food crisis.
"A formula of appeasement or war is misleading. There is a third way:
democratic change by the people and the Iranian resistance. This is the only way
to avoid war," she said…
She also said the Iranian people are hoping for a new European policy that
rejects appeasement.
