Kazem Jalali, the head of Iran and Europe Parliamentary Friendship Group had been invited by Tarja Cronberg for a visit to Strasbourg, the seat of European Parliament on April 16 and 17, which has coincided with passing by the European Parliament of an anti-Iranian resolution.
The statement issued by the Parliament addresses ‘Mrs. Tarja Cronberg’ and expresses regrets that the Parliament had cancelled a visit to Strasbourg because of ‘hidden and malevolent hands which envy the improvement of Iran and European Parliament relations,’ which the statement believes to commission anti-Iranian resolution in the European Parliament.
“Despite the good offices by your majesty and other Parliamentary group members and by Islamic Republic’s Parliamentary Friendship group, I would regret to let you know that we have cancelled visit to Strasbourg by invitation from you,” reads the statement.
Part of the statement criticized the resolution as being ‘unjustly calling Iranian presidential elections as undemocratic,’ and dismisses it as baseless, since the European Parliament itself has been elected in a low turnout of 43 percent, “if the European Parliament’s criterion for a just election is the turnout percent;” thus, it is quite ludicrous to label the 73-percent turnout in Iran’s presidential elections as undemocratic, the statement believes.
It also accused European Parliament of ‘extreme case of megalomania;’ “they deem themselves as ‘selected nations’ whose criteria should be set as ‘acceptable and standard’ criteria to judge the elections in other countries. However, these criteria indicate that their criteria are purely absolutist, which the statement believes as being ‘unacceptable and selfish.’
“The European Parliament should come to understand that nations, quite intentionally and out of insight, would not want to experience colonialism again, and if the EU do not reconsider its concepts of human rights, it will commit a significant error of judgment,” said the statement.
SH/ZK
MNA
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