European lawmakers from two political groups speak out against a planned visit to Iran on Thursday
Strasbourg – Members of parliament from the European People’s Party (EPP), the biggest political group in the parliament and also the European Conservatives-Reformists (ECR) held a joint press conference in Strasbourg on Wednesday morning 11 December to express their strong opposition to a planned visit of some MEP to Tehran.

The MEPs who took part in the press conference are all members of parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iran. Potito Salatto who is the first vice-chair of the Delegation said that EPP group has decided not to be a part of this visit because of human rights violations under the new President Rouhani with several hundred executions.
Marco Scurria said that it is ridiculous that some MEPs are going to Tehran without any agenda or preconditions. So the Iranian government will take them where it wants and would use them for propaganda purposes.
Geoffrey Van Orden, a senior British MEP from the ECR group said that under present conditions and the human rights violations in Iran, the parliament must not send anyone to that country.
The Italian MEP Oreste Rossi also emphasized on the public executions and even stoning which are taking place in Iran.
Mr Salatto said that 5 MEPs from mainly left groups are going to Tehran tomorrow unless the visit is cancelled at the last minute like previous occasions.