Free Republic

A former Iranian diplomat who defected to the West this year said Tuesday he saw North Korean technicians repeatedly travel to Iran, which Western officials fear is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Mohammad Reza Heydari, who resigned in January from his post as Iranian consul in Norway, said he's "certain" the cooperation is continuing between his home country and North Korea. The comments at a Paris think tank conference come amid rising international concerns that North Korea, which has already staged atomic tests, is cooperating with Iran on its nuclear program

OSLO—Mohammed Reza Heydari always considered himself a loyal official of the Islamic Republic of Iran: He clocked long hours at work as a senior diplomat here in Norway, spent quiet nights at home with his family and observed Iranian national holidays. That all changed, Mr. Heydari says an interview, when he witnessed up close Iran's effort to crush protests and skew the vote in last year's controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In January, Mr. Heydari, a slight and balding veteran of the Iran-Iraq War, resigned as chief consular official at the Iranian Embassy in Oslo and requested political asylum,...

A veteran Iranian diplomat based in Norway has resigned his post, denounced his government and urged colleagues around the world to do the same after the regime’s brutal suppression of huge opposition demonstrations last month. Mohammed-Reza Heydari, Iran’s consul in Oslo, is the first Iranian diplomat to publicly quit and condemn the regime. He revealed that it sought to lure him back to Tehran after rumours of his defection surfaced last week. At the time, the Iranian Foreign Ministry insisted that the rumours were baseless. In an interview with the Norwegian television channel NRK, Mr Heydari said that he decided...

Scandinavian media are reporting that a high-ranking Iranian diplomat in Norway has resigned over the recent clampdowns on anti-government protesters in Iran. "It was the Iranian authorities' treatment of demonstrators during the Christmas week that made me realize I couldn't continue," Mohammed Reza Heydari was quoted as saying in a report by Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Iranian officials have rejected the reports as rumor. A report by the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr quoted a source in the Foreign Ministry as denying the report and describing it as part of a Western “psychological war” against Iran. "The report is baseless. A...

It's being tweeted that the Iranian Amb to Norway has resigned and is seeking asylum in Oslo. So far I have not seen it in the MSM. It's beeing tweeted that it is been published in a Norwegian paper. Anyone read the language? Things must be gettin real bad if Ambassadors are cutting and running, as one person posted.