On February 10, at the Norway Parliament, there was a meeting in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising and their organized Resistance movement. The keynote speaker of this event was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who shed light on the current situation in Iran. The event was also attended by several renowned former ministers, lawmakers, and politicians from Norway and other Nordic countries.
Mrs. Rajavi underlined the regime’s tactic to use the deposed Pahlavi dictatorship to misguide the revolution, all the while tarnishing the image of the viable alternative. “The regime also has another tactic, which is using the elements affiliated with Shah’s dictatorship. The Ministry of Intelligence and the IRGC also deploy such elements to divert the uprising. However, in the last five months, the Iranian people – in Iran and abroad – defeated this plot with their slogans of death to the oppressor – be it the Shah or Khamenei.”
She also urged the European powers to side with the Iranian people. “It is time for the European countries to hear the Iranian people’s voice. It should put the IRGC on the terrorist list, shut down the Iranian regime’s embassies in their countries, and recognize the Resistance of the Iranian people and their right to self-defense,” Mrs. Rajavi added.
Mr. Lars Rise, a former Member of Parliament from Norway, while condemning the regime’s brutal oppression of the current uprising in Iran, said, “in spite of this very brutal operation from the authorities, people are still protesting. It may be the start of a revolution and regime change. It has been mainly the women who are organizing this, and the protests have taken part in almost 300 cities in Iran going on now for close to 150 days with rights and protests against the regime.”
Norwegian MP, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, expressed his utter support of the people while calling for the blacklisting of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). “We should make every effort that we can in order to support the opposition in Iran. we have to remember that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards could be put on the terrorist list.”
Without the presence of a democratic alternative such as the #NCRI, the regime may convince the international community that there is no option other than to come to a compromise with the current regime.#IravRevolutionpic.twitter.com/R43C2aOLuO
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 11, 2023
Arild Hermstad, the leader of the Norwegian Green Party, also praised the Iranian youth and women’s bravery while expressing his support for the revolution in the making in Iran. “It’s the young people of Iran, it’s the women of Iran who currently are being extremely brave, and it’s actually their struggle, and what we can do to support them is what we should think about,” he said.
Mr. Morten Wold, another Norwegian MP and a long-time supporter of the NCRI, also reiterated his support and vowed to continue his efforts in solidarity with the Iranian people and their uprising.
“Mrs. Rajavi, we admire your relentless efforts during all these years to bring change to Iran. We support your struggle for a free democratic Iran, as articulated in your Ten Points Plan for the Future,” he added.
Mr. Geir Haarde, the former Prime Minister of Iceland, was also among the speakers at the event. He endorsed the Iranian people’s right to self-defense in the face of the regime’s mounting violence. “It’s so important for us to support the fight of the Iranians for freedom and democracy because what they are asking for are the same inalienable rights that we all take for granted in Western societies. we need to understand that the Iranian people have the same right to enjoy these principles that are enshrined in every modern constitution in the Western world.”
He also urged the Norwegian government “to help pressure the clerical regime in Iran to meet the demands of the protesters of the young people in Iran. You must think of everything that can be done.”
Kimmo Sasi, former Finish MP and Minister of Transport and Communications, also joined his colleagues in praising the Iranian people’s revolution and its democratic nature, which rejects any form of dictatorship. “The slogans like ‘Down with the oppressor, be it the Shah or the leader [Khamenei],’ and ‘Neither monarchy nor theocracy, equality, and democracy’ describe what the youth want to have in the future. And there is only one way forward for Iran, and that is a democratic Iran.”
Pointing to the NCRI’s efforts, particularly Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s ten-point plan for the future of Iran, Mr. Sasi said, “One asks, so is there a real way? Is there a real alternative? And in fact, everyone should read Mrs. Rajavi’s ten-point plan. It’s an excellent plan. Democracy, human rights, the separation between religion and politics and respecting minorities in Iran, and equality between women and men. And that is the clear path forward for Iran.”
“The National Council of Resistance of Iran is the strongest opposition group with democratic structures and wide support abroad, but also inside Iran. And that should be a leading factor in the revolution. And the excellent thing is that the President-elect of NCRI is Mrs. Rajavi, a woman, who really can show the difference between the changes in Iran, taking both men and women aboard in that demonstration,” he added.
Former Norwegian MP Geir Sigbjørn Torskedal also joined his colleagues in condemning the regime’s atrocities, praising the Iranian women’s role in the uprising and Mrs. Rajavi’s leading role in the struggle for regime change in Iran. “This regime has long targeted women, which is why women are at the forefront of the uprising, risking their lives to voice their demands and gain their freedoms. We support your peaceful efforts for free speech, democracy, and human rights in your lovely country, Iran. We know that the regime in Iran does not represent the people, and the best way to convey that is to recognize people’s right to defend themselves and support their desire for regime change.”
Former Member of the European and Scotland’s parliaments, Struan Stevenson, was also among the conference panelists. He called out the EU’s appeasement policy toward the Iranian regime, particularly the efforts by the EU’s High Representative Josep Borrel, whom he described as the “Arch appeaser” of Tehran. Borrel has been making all efforts to revive the highly flawed 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). “He has made it his mission to try to reintroduce. It was used as an illusion, as a cover by the Iranians while they continued to accelerate the process of developing a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Stevenson said.
He urged the European leaders to “Stop appeasing the mullahs. The west has to wake up to this. Now that we have a regime that is supplying kamikaze drones to Putin to use for killing innocent civilians in Ukraine, now that we have people being moaned down in the streets of Iran by the IRGC and the thuggish Basij militia, how is it possible that we can try to negotiate or have any dialogue with the Mullahs? There can be no question of resurrecting the JCPOA. It is dead in the water, and people have to recognize it.”
Mr. Parviz Khazaie, the NCRI’s representative in Nordic countries, also addressed the conference, shedding light on nearly a century of struggle for freedom in Iran while rejecting the regime’s misuse of Islam. “All the ideologies, progressive ideologies, left and right and center religion, non-religion, we have to unite for the ten-point plan of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi,” he said.
Thursday’s conference also featured Mr. Edvard Júlíus Sólnes, former Iceland’s Minister of Environment, as interlocutor. He condemned the “despicable behavior of the mullahs in Tehran, killing their own citizens at large, setting up mock trials with a death sentence,” underlining that these actions have “clearly shown to the world that it is futile to try to negotiate with these monsters and even enter into any negotiations with them.” “You don’t negotiate with psychopathic killers. As a first step, the EU should immediately blacklist the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group. What steps should be taken immediately? This action is long overdue,” he added.
Mrs. Sarvenaz Chitsaz, Chair of the NCRI’s Women Committee, weighed on the leading role of women in the current uprising as a phenomenon that stems from decades of sacrifices by the Iranian women in the Iranian opposition, Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), and the NCRI.
“As a matter of fact, women played a very important role in the 1979 revolution, which we are on the eve of this of its anniversary. One of the main achievements of Iran’s main opposition PMOI was this generation of women that are strong to take the key responsibilities in our resistance movement. More than 50% of the members of the NCRI as the resistance parliament are women.”
“This background and history explain how today, the women of Iran are the driving force of the current uprising and lead it, as admitted by the regime itself. The adoption of the NCRI plan on women’s rights and freedom goes back 37 years ago,” she added.
Afshin Motevalli, who spoke on behalf of the Young Norwegian Iranians for Democracy, referred to the “culture of impunity in Iran,” urging the Norwegian “government and Storting [Norwegian parliament] to pressure the regime to release all those detained during the protests as they are subjected to torture and executions.