PMOI leader Maryam Rajavi speaks in Italy

ROME, July 23 (UPI) -- The best way to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program is to support the Iranian resistance, a top opposition leader said in Italy Wednesday.

Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, wife of the founder of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran and herself the co-leader, addressed the Italian Parliament Wednesday at the invitation of Italian lawmakers, Adnkronos International reported.

"Any form of negotiation with Iran is useless. The international community must take very serious decisions in regards to Iran," she said.

The PMOI is based in the eastern Iraqi city of Ashraf. The United States and several other nations list the group as a terrorist organization, though the U.S. military provides the group with limited protection in Iraq.

Rajavi is in Italy lobbying for support for her movement. She is advocating a measure to remove the PMOI from the European list of terrorist organizations, claiming the PMOI has abandoned violent resistance.

Calling Tehran a "21st century dictatorship," the newly elected president of the NCRI said negotiating with Iran was an "unacceptable solution" that gave the ruling clerics in Iran time to advance their controversial nuclear program.

She condemned the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council for negotiating with Iranian officials, saying support for the resistance was the only way to avoid conflict with the Islamic Republic.

"A formula of appeasement or war is misleading. There is a third way: democratic change by the people and the Iranian resistance. This is the only way to avoid war," she said.