Iranian Diplomat Resigns In Finland, Joins Opposition

Hossein Alizadeh

A senior diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Finland has resigned, saying he quit to join the political opposition against President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

Reuters quoted Hossein Alizadeh, who said he was second in command at Iran's embassy in Helsinki, as on September 12 saying "I have resigned definitively in protest -- I am no longer an Iranian diplomat."

Alizadeh is the second Iranian diplomat in Europe to join the opposition movement this year following the disputed presidential election in 2009. His move followed the resignation in January of Mohammed Reza Heydari, an Iranian consular official in Norway, who claimed political asylum and has since joined the Iranian opposition movement in exile.

(Reuters)