{"id":235245,"date":"2021-02-21T14:10:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T19:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=235245"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:11:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:11:29","slug":"europe-iran-business-forum-gives-legitimacy-to-iranian-officials-at-the-worst-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/europe-iran-business-forum-gives-legitimacy-to-iranian-officials-at-the-worst-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe-Iran Business Forum Gives Legitimacy To Iranian Officials at the Worst Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"europe-iran-business-forum-gives-legitimacy-to-iranian-officials-at-the-worst-time\"<\/p>\n

Josep Borrell, the European Union\u2019s head of foreign policy, recently confirmed that he would be taking part in the Europe-Iran Business Forum at the beginning of March. Borrell is scheduled to deliver one keynote speech at the online conference, while another will come from Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif<\/a>. The plans have already sparked outrage among critics of the Iranian regime who had urged Borrell and other leading European officials to specifically take action against Zarif in the wake of the February 4 conviction of a high-ranking Iranian diplomat who led an unsuccessful plot to set off a bomb at a 2018 gathering<\/a> of Iranian expatriates near France.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> expressing concern over European silence on the matter of that conviction, the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) described the forthcoming Business Forum as an example of \u201ccatastrophic capitulation to the Iranian regime\u2019s attempts to bomb and kill people on European soil.\u201d Former officials from Britain, Italy, and Portugal signed that statement along with former European Parliament Vice President Alejo Vidal-Quadras, who now serves as chairman of the NGO which focuses on promoting human rights and democracy in Iran.<\/p>\n

Many other European lawmakers had previously joined Vidal-Quadras in signing a similar statement while the trial of the Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi<\/a>, was still ongoing. That statement anticipated Assadi\u2019s conviction but emphasized the notion that European governments should not be satisfied with targeted legal penalties for the individuals directly involved in the 2018 plot. Instead, the signers agreed, the EU should pursue a broader political response with the goal of enforcing accountability for high-ranking Iranian officials such as Zarif.<\/p>\n

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