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 Agence France Presse, Brussels, October 24 - Maryam Rajavi, president of the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran made an unofficial visit to the Belgian Senate, which has already angered Tehran.
"We are not receiving you officially, but nonetheless with great interest in what you represent," said Senate president Anne-Marie Lizin upon greeting Rajavi, who lives in France. Click here to watch the Video
"I really respect the fight that you are waging, which is very hard. We hope that you will become someone of importance in your country," she added. Rajavi's group is an umbrella coalition of which the armed opposition People's Mujahedeen is a member. The People's Mujahedeen, banned in Iran, is considered a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States. However Rajavi, who has already been received at the European Parliament, "lives legally in France" and came here to represent the umbrella opposition group and not specifically the People's Mujahedeen, the Belgian foreign ministry stressed Tuesday. On Sunday, Belgium's ambassador to Iran was summoned by the Iran foreign ministry in a sign of protest against the visit, said Belgian diplomatic spokesman Karel De Gucht. "We explained that in Belgium, there is a separation between powers and that the senators can issue invitations," he said. Tuesday's meeting of several minutes between Lizin and Rajavi took place in one of the Senate's side rooms, in the presence of a small group of invited senators. After visiting the chamber Rajavi, accompanied by a 20-strong delegation, held an informal discussion with senators in which Lizin took no part. "We are very happy to receive you because you are a very brave woman. It is not obvious that a Muslim woman can carry out a struggle as you are doing," said liberal senator Patrik Vankrunkelsven. Fellow senator, socialist Pierre Galand, expressed the hope that the meeting would "allow talk of the evolution of democracy in Iran and reinforce the dialogue of peace." Rajavi said she hoped that her reception in the Belgian upper house "will serve as an example for other nations."
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