“Belgium demeans itself worldwide after the mayor of Tehran visits”

The mayor of Tehran visited Brussels following an international conference and apparently at the invitation of Brussels Secretary of State Pascal Smet (Vooruit party). “Incomprehensible,” says N-VA federal group chair Peter De Roover. “Barely a few weeks after the humiliating exchange with the Iranian terrorist Assadi, the mayor of Tehran breezes in to visit Brussels Town Hall.”

De Roover also questions the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs Lahbib. “She says that she had issued a negative advice. Pascal Smet says he simply followed the minister’s advice. There are only two possibilities: either Ms Lahbib told the Iranian mayor that he was welcome - which would be completely incomprehensible - or she did indeed issue a negative advice, but Mr Smet intervened, and she backed down after all. That would be equally incomprehensible.”

Humiliation

“The question that must surely be asked is what the visa policy is in this country. Because we are demeaning ourselves worldwide, and after the humiliation of the exchange between Assadi and Vandecasteele, we don’t even have the guts to say that the mayor is not welcome here.”

“This cannot be justified”

MP Darya Safai, who fled the Iranian regime herself, questioned Minister of Foreign Affairs Lahbib about the matter. “This cannot be justified. This is a political blunder. After the whole Vandecasteele affair, this Vivaldi government still doesn’t know who our enemy is. We have allowed ourselves to be intimidated and blackmailed and are now rolling out the red carpet for the regime.”

Iranian regime hardliner

Darya Safai makes no secret of her disappointment in Lahbib. “After the murder of Masha Amini (the Iranian woman who died after a heavy-handed arrest because a tuft of hair was sticking out of her headscarf), I cut off a lock of my hair in symbolic protest. Minister Lahbib did the same. I cannot believe that the same minister has just granted a visa to a hardliner of the Iranian regime.”