Finnish -Israel Relations Finnish Politics Iran

FINNISH MEP TARJA CRONBERG PLANS TO HEAD PHOTO OPPORTUNITY FOR IRANIAN REGIME…….

 

Finnish epic fail.

No doubt the head of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iran, Tarja Cronberg, couldn’t care less that her trip to Iran will produce the exact opposite results intended, otherwise why try it? Most of these Nordic politicians are so out of their depth on international matters, that we all would be better served if they just stayed in their offices and worked their phones.

According to Dr. Wahied Wahdat- Hagh, an expert on EU-Iranian relations and a fellow with the Brussels-based European Foundation for Democracy, the MEPs think they can change Iran’s government. “They are making a mistake, because Iran’s rulers think in totalitarian [terms] and act totalitarian and do not allow themselves to be told what to do by the Europeans,” he told the Post. “It is the worst signal the Europeans can send ahead of the fake elections.”

tarja_cronberg_lehtikuva_Mikko-Stig

Planned EU Parliament trip to Iran draws criticism

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
04/25/2013 21:20

Critics call visit i”photo-op with Iranian repressors,” claim it weakens efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

A trip that members of the European Parliament are planning to take to Iran has sparked intense criticism in Europe and Israel, with critics saying the visit weakens the international effort to stop Tehran’s nuclear program and promote human rights.

Tarja Cronberg (Greens/EFA, Finland), chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iran, and the delegation’s vice-chairwoman, Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, Germany), are slated to arrive in Tehran in May.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post by phone from Brussels on Thursday, British MEP Dr. Charles Tannock, a UK Conservative Party member representing the center-right European conservative and Reformists group in the parliament, termed the trip a “very bad idea” because the visit would allow Iran’s government to use “EU dialogue as a publicity stunt.”

He said his group was “firmly opposed to [the visit], and we regret this trip by Cronberg.”

Tannock, who is also a member of the foreign affairs committee in the EU parliament and is a leading MEP expert on Iran, said it was the wrong time to visit the Islamic Republic because of the “terrible human rights in the country,” adding that “women are stoned to death, homosexuals are hanged,” and Iranian Ahwazi Arabs and Bahai are facing persecution.

He warned that Iran would exploit the trip ahead of the June Iranian presidential elections. He also noted that there had been “no progress in stopping centrifuges” with respect to Iran’s sanctioned nuclear program, and that the country had one of the highest levels of executions in world.

“Acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran is a serious and unacceptable threat to global security,” he said.

Gerald Steinberg, president of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor and professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University, told the Post on Thursday that it was “hard to imagine something more damaging than an EU parliamentary visit to Iran, in terms of the effort to end the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program without military action.”

 More here.

One Response

  1. Look folks, there are too many of these nordic do-gooders running around the world stage in futile attempts to make the world into a better place.

    Trouble is, they accomplish squat and just rack up unnecessay and wasteful expense that has to be paid for by long suffering tax payers.

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