European delegation cancels planned trip to Iran
An 11-person delegation from the European Union will not visit Iran this week as planned, due to the tension and uncertainty surrounding the continued violence there. The news was announced by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as a decision "by mutual agreement," but several of the delegation members had already announced their intention to ...
An 11-person delegation from the European Union will not visit Iran this week as planned, due to the tension and uncertainty surrounding the continued violence there.
An 11-person delegation from the European Union will not visit Iran this week as planned, due to the tension and uncertainty surrounding the continued violence there.
The news was announced by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as a decision "by mutual agreement," but several of the delegation members had already announced their intention to abandon the planned trip, in which European parliamentarians were set to meet with Iranian lawmakers and human rights representatives.
"At the time blood is flowing on the streets of Iran we cannot remain indifferent but it rather upsets and worries us. For this reason we decided to send a signal to the international community, as a protest we will not join a visit already planned by the ‘Delegation for Relations with Iran’ on 7 January to Tehran. Before thinking about such openings and any kind of dialogue, the priority is to stop the violence," said Italian lawmakers Scurria Marco, Salvatore Tatarella, and Potito Salatta in a Dec. 28 press release.
The decision is being seen among many as a sign that even the left of the European Iran-watching community is now coming to the realization that engagement of the Iranian regime is not palatable now and the move to the pressure track is the most appropriate way forward.
"We believe that the Iranian government does not deserve any form of opening, but only a strong condemnation, the same expressed by the United States and several European countries," the Italian lawmakers wrote. "Dialogue is impossible as long as the opposition is soaked in blood and the civil rights have been reduced to waste paper."
Also on Dec. 28, the European parliament group "Friends of a Free Iran" put out a press release condemning the violence and noting that the protestors no longer chant against the West, but rather against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who they said should no longer be engaged.
"The uprising in Iran shows that the clerical regime is on its way out. Negotiations and trade with, and appeasement of the medieval regime are futile and will only embolden the mullahs in their suppression and killing of the Iranian people," the group, which as of 2006 consisted of MEPs Alejo Vidal Quadras, Paulo Casaca, Andre Brie, and Struan Stevenson, wrote.
More than a dozen U.S. lawmakers had written a letter to protest the EU trip to Iran. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-MA, had also been rumored to be trying to go to Iran. Kerry has denied he is going, but the Iranian government has said it received a request from him and now has apparently rejected it.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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