{"id":235609,"date":"2021-02-28T10:44:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T15:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=235609"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:10:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:10:14","slug":"participants-in-europe-iran-business-forum-should-face-shame-after-the-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/participants-in-europe-iran-business-forum-should-face-shame-after-the-fact\/","title":{"rendered":"Participants in Europe-Iran Business Forum Should Face Shame After the Fact"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Monday marks the beginning of a three-day conference to expand trade ties between Europe and the Iranian regime. It appears slated to go forward despite the fact there has been no resolution of the controversy that resulted in the event being postponed from its original December schedule. Its organizers and participants have seemingly opted to ignore that controversy now that it has faded from public awareness. But they are also ignoring a variety of other issues that favor its cancellation, including another international conference held on Thursday for the express purpose of condemning this and other examples of “appeasing” the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

There has been little change to the program of the Europe-Iran Business Forum. Many of the European politicians and business leaders who had signed onto it before December are now scheduled to deliver remarks in the coming week, even though some of them had helped apply the pressure that resulted in its postponement. That pressure emerged from the news that Iranian authorities had executed an opposition journalist, Ruhollah Zam<\/a>, just before the event was set to begin. The timing was quite possibly chosen so Iran could test European lawmakers’ willingness to overlook human rights abuses. The initial withdrawals may have conveyed a message of accountability, albeit short-lived.<\/p>\n

EU is sending the opposite message<\/h2>\n

In February, the European Union sent precisely the opposite message by announcing that it still planned to sponsor the event on its revised schedule. Making matters worse, that announcement came hot on the heels of a verdict in Belgian federal court which held a high-ranking Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi<\/a>, guilty for plotting a terrorist bombing that would have killed hundreds of people just outside Paris if it had been successful. After offering no public comment on that incident, the EU’s head of foreign policy Josep Borrell signed on to serve as the keynote speaker at the Business Forum, right alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Iran\u2019s Terrorist-Diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, Led a Large Espionage & Terrorism Network in EU<\/div><\/div>
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