News

For two weeks the Iranian government and official media outlets have claimed that news of the resignation of an Iranian diplomat in Norway in protest to the Islamic regime's crackdown is a lie.

But this evening, Mohammad Reza Heidari, Iran's former consul in Oslo, gave an interview to Norway's NRK channel (video and translation at the end of this report) and set the record straight: He has indeed resigned in protest and it appears that it was the Islamic regime that has engaged in spreading falsehoods.

News of Heidari's resignation began surfacing on January 5 and was initially based on the claims of the Norweian-Iranian Support Committee, an opposition group. At the time, NRK stated that it had spoken to Heidari and that he had defected. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declared that it was unaware of the situation.

The Islamic regime riposted by saying that the news was disinformation spread by enemies of the state. Various explanations were engineered by the Islamic Republic: that Heidari's term had simply ended, that he was on vacation... Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the following, as recently as two days ago, minimizing Heidari's role at the embassy, providing a lesson in diplomatic relations and offering a veiled warning to Heidari: