Deaglán de Bréadún, Political Correspondent

Irish Times, 15 March - IRELAND/IRAN: Opponents of the Iranian regime lobbied parliamentarians at Leinster House for the reversal of an EU decision to continue listing the People's Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) as a terrorist organisation.

Despite a ruling by the European Court of First Instance, which is attached to the European Court of Justice, that the PMOI should be removed from the European Union's list of terrorist groups, the council of ministers recently decided to maintain the PMOI's terrorist designation and freeze its finances.

The decision to keep the PMOI on the terrorist list was taken at a meeting of Ecofin, the European Council of Finance Ministers, in January. It had the unanimous support of EU finance ministers including Ireland's Brian Cowen.

Since unanimity is required on justice issues at the EU Council of Ministers, if even one government fails to support a proposal, that proposal falls.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) is an umbrella organisation, based in France, which includes the PMOI as part of its coalition of groups and individuals opposed to the Tehran regime. Its Irish spokesman, Dr Sharam Taromsari, said the NCRI was seeking "a secular, democratic republic inside Iran".

He added that the Court of First Instance had conducted an investigation and decided that the PMOI should not have been on the EU terrorist list in the first place.

"It's imperative that the Irish Government must take sides with the rule of law," he said. The two men had discussions with Fianna Fáil TD Pat Carey, Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, Green Party chairman John Gormley and Independent senator David Norris and requested them to ask the Government "to stand supporting the ruling by the European Court of Justice".