Iran opposition group scores victory in Italian Parliament

Iran Focus: Rome, Jun. 14 – The main Iranian opposition group, which has challenged its black-listing by the European Union, scored a major victory in the Italian Parliament on Thursday. Iran Focus

Rome, Jun. 14 – The main Iranian opposition group, which has challenged its black-listing by the European Union, scored a major victory in the Italian Parliament on Thursday.

The People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) has cried foul over the EU’s decision not to remove its name from the terrorist register despite a verdict by the European Court of First Instance last December annulling the EU’s decision to blacklist the group. The Court ordered the EU to remove the PMOI from the list of organisations whose assets were to be frozen in the fight against terrorism.

On Thursday, the Italian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a binding resolution calling on the government of Romano Prodi to urge the European Union to implement the European court order.

The resolution gained cross-party support and obligated the Italian government to “support the 12 December 2006 verdict of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities in the meeting of the Council of the European Union”.

EU Foreign Ministers will be meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19, when they will likely discuss the matter.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the main opposition coalition which includes the PMOI, in a statement welcomed the Italian resolution.

“Many Senators and Members of Parliament from the ruling party and the opposition, as well as a Parliamentary majority have signed a statement addressed to the European Union in which they called on it to respect the verdict of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg”, the Parliamentary resolution said, referring to the announcement in March that 318 of the 630 Members of Parliament had signed a statement in support of the PMOI.

The PMOI recently filed another complaint at the European Court of First Instance, accusing the EU of defying the original Court verdict and demanding 1 million Euros compensation.