Another Iranian diplomat seeking asylum in West

Farzad Farhangian

An Iranian diplomat called Tuesday for an uprising against the government, as he became the third Europe-based envoy to defect this year and declared he was seeking asylum in Norway. "I'm seeking political asylum with all my family," Farzad Farhangian, a press attaché at the Iranian embassy in Brussels, told reporters in Oslo. According to AFP, he said he wants to join the opposition.

"I'm apologizing to the Iranian people. During the last 30 years I was of service to the Iranian people, 23 of them in the diplomatic service, but the deviation that the Iranian republic has reached leaves me no choice," he said. "I hope to be a voice of the opposition," he added.

Farhangian, 47, is the third Iranian diplomat this year to seek protection in a Nordic country.