Brussels, 13/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - A delegation of the Socialist Group at the European Parliament headed by its president, Enrique Baron, will be in Iran from 19 to 22 January for measures, in particular with President of the Republic Khatami, President of the Parliament Kharubi and Foreign Minister Kharazi, a press release states. MEPs will also meet the elected women members of the Iranian Parliament, with Ms Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize, and with NGO representatives from the civil society and scientific circles.
Belgian Socialist Véronique de Keyser, who will also be on the visit, said on Tuesday in Strasbourg that the inadmissibility of two thousand candidatures (or more) for the Iranian legislative elections in February this year has stupefied the world just at a time when Europe, confident in the democratisation process established by the Iranian government, had progressed in bilateral talks, and when agreements were taking shape on the horizon. If the crisis is not resolved in an acceptable way, it will have a deep and lasting effect on relations between Iran and the European Union, she said. (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5, on the subject of talks by CFSP High Representative Javier Solana in Teheran).