AP: The Iranian ambassador to Norway warned the Nordic nation that a meeting next week between Norwegian lawmakers and an Iranian opposition leader would carry “serious consequences” for bilateral relations, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Saturday. Associated Press
OSLO, Norway (AP) – The Iranian ambassador to Norway warned the Nordic nation that a meeting next week between Norwegian lawmakers and an Iranian opposition leader would carry “serious consequences” for bilateral relations, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported Saturday.
Members of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee planned to hold talks with Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi in Oslo next week.
The Iranian ambassador, Abdul Reza Faraji Rad, became aware of the meeting, which was not public, after ostensibly intercepting an internal E-mail addressed to the committee, NRK said.
The Iranian diplomat then threatened the committee’s chairman, Olav Akselsen, with serious consequences for Norway-Iran relations if the group went ahead with the meeting.
Rajavi, an outspoken human rights activist considered as a terrorist by the Iranian regime, held talks last year with Belgian legislators.
Rajavi, who lives in Paris, is the “president-elect” of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella coalition that unites the Iraq-based Mujahideen-e Khalq Organisation, or People’s Mujahideen, accused by Tehran of waging an armed struggle against the country’s government.
Foreign Affairs Committee member Morten Hoglund criticized the Iranian ambassador for making the threat.
“I think it is unheard of that a highly placed diplomat in Oslo can have such a lack of respect for Norwegian democracy and Parliament, and can come with such threats from a regime that is at odds with the world’s society in many areas and it is one of the most tyrannical that exist,” Hoglund said.
Gerrit Loeberg, the head of security in Norway’s Parliament, told the local newspaper VG that he would discuss the security concern with the Scandinavian country’s secret police, PST.
“Such a direct threat against Norway from another country’s ambassador is extremely rare,” Loeberg was quoted as saying to VG.
