Press Release by Liberal Group in Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe welcoming Maryam Rajavi, Strasbourg

Mrs. Rajavi called for the adoption of a decisive policy by Europe so as to rid the Iranian people and the world from the menace of the religious dictatorship in Iran.

Before addressing the formal session of the ALDE Group, Mrs. Rajavi was received by a dozen Parliamentarians from different parliamentary groups as she arrived at the headquarters of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Lord Russell-Johnston, the honorary President of the Liberal Group and former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; said in his opening remarks, "Mrs. Rajavi and her movement present a genuine democratic alternative to the extremists who rule Iran."

Lord Russel-Johnston added, "The Iranian people have suffered as a result of Western policy to make rapprochement with the Iranian regime. In response to the demand of the Iranian regime, Iran's main opposition movement, the People's Mojahedin was labeled as a terrorist organization. While there is no basis for the allegation against the PMOI, the blacklisting of the organization has also affected the activities of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. We should say it loud and clear, the NCRI is a democratic coalition."

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Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, was invited to a meeting by the Socialist Group of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Wednesday, April 12.

Mr. Lluís Maria de Puig, chairman of the Socialist Group opened the meeting by welcoming Mrs. Rajavi and offered the floor to her.

Mrs. Rajavi thanked the socialist group and its Chair for the opportunity given to the Iranian Resistance to be heard in its group meeting and then drew the attention of the members to the threats posed by Iranain regime and said: "By resuming uranium enrichment using 164 centrifuges in cascade, the mullahs’ regime openly defied the call by the UN Security Council’s Presidential Statement to halt all its enrichment activities.” She then reiterated, “this, once again, proved that hesitation will only embolden the mullahs in their nuclear ambitions.”

Following Ahmadinejad's remarks, Mrs. Rajavi warned against delay in adopting a firm policy against mullahs, affirmed democratic change is definitive response to Tehran's nuclear threat

Yesterday, the Iranian regime's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, announced that the clerical regime had operated the first cascade of centrifuges, injecting gas in them and producing enriched uranium. Rafsanjani also claimed that the regime can enrich uranium on an industrial scale and emphasized, "We must expand these machines to acquire a complete industrial unit… When ElBaradei comes to Iran, he will face a new situation."

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi came to Strasbourg for a meeting in the Council of Europe on an invitations by the Liberal Democrats group to discuss about the increasing crisis between the world and the Iranian regime.

Mrs. Rajavi said that the policy of appeasement empowered the mullahs to pose a major threat to the world through their adventurous policies.

Video Report

By Parisa Hafezi

Reuters - Russia and Europe joined the United States on Wednesday in condemning Iran's assertion that it had enriched uranium in defiance of a U.N. demand, but Moscow said force could not resolve the dispute.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Tuesday that Iran had enriched uranium for the first time and would now press ahead with industrial-scale enrichment.

His triumphant announcement keeps the Islamic Republic on a collision course with the United Nations and with Western countries convinced that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, not just fuel for power stations as it insists...

Exiled Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said the West had been too soft on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"The policy of complaisance followed for years by the Western countries has permitted this country to get so close to a nuclear weapon," she told reporters in Strasbourg.

Information provided in 2002 by Rajavi's National Council of Resistance of Iran, which wants to oust Iran's clerical rulers, forced Tehran to lift the veil on its nuclear program.