07/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Iranian ambassador to the EU, Abolghasem Delfi, has expressed his astonishment at MEP Nelly Maes, who announced that she would not be taking part in a European Parliament meeting on dialogue among civilisations and women's rights due to the presence of the President's adviser Khatami Zhara Shojai, who Ms Maes claims is "in favour of death by stoning" (see EUROPE of 5 March, p.5). This "unbelievable position is based on inaccurate information", states the Iranian ambassador, who told Ms Maes: in her meetings with your colleagues, Ms Shojai repeated that, according to a decree adopted in Iran, stoning "was stopped a long time ago". The ambassador stated his surprise that Ms Maes did not take advantage of the presence of the high-level delegation of Iranian women, in Brussels at the time, to discuss the matter with them.