President of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, Maryam Rajavi gives a press conference in Paris, after receiving a statement ’for a democratic change in Iran’ signed by 290 French deputies. French deputies presented exiled opposition leader Rajavi with a declaration calling for democratic change in Iran in a ceremony at France’s National Assembly Wednesday. (AFP Jean Ayissi)




AFP, PARIS, July 16, 2008 (Excerpts) : French deputies presented exiled Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi with a declaration calling for democratic change in Iran in a ceremony at France’s National Assembly Wednesday.
And they called for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (CNRI), of which Rajavi is president, to be removed from the European Union’s list of terrorist organisations.
The declaration, drafted by parties from all sides of the house and signed by 290 French deputies, condemned the ’terrible human rights violations in Iran.’
British Members of Parliament and deputies from the European Parliament, in Paris to attend a conference, also attended the ceremony.
Communist deputy Jean-Pierre Brard said they would be pushing for the CNRI to be reclassified during France’s six-month presidency of the European Union, which started this month.
’A great number of deputies consider that the policy of complacency (towards Iran) has not led to anything and that the governments’ positions smell too much of oil,’ he added.
Rajavi’s group is a coalition of which the armed opposition People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) is a member.
The PMOI is banned in Iran, and considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
British Conservative MP Brian Binley also called for the EU to follow the example of Britain and lift the ban on PMOI, which Britain did last month, a decision bitterly attacked by Tehran.