Iranian MP Blasts France's Double Standards on Terrorism
TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- French officials' dual policies on terrorism undermine nations' trust in the honesty of European statesmen, a prominent Iranian MP said.
"Some western statesmen should learn actual campaign against terrorism from the practical reaction (Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali) Haddad Adel showed to the terrorists," member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Reza Talayee Nik told FNA here on Saturday.
By practical reaction, Talayee Nik alluded to the cancellation of a speech to the Council of Europe by Iranian parliament speaker in protest at an invitation to the head of the outlawed Iranian opposition.
Haddad Adel scrapped the planned speech in Strasbourg after Maryam Rajavi, president of the terrorist group Mojahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) which claimed bomb attacks and shootings on political leaders inside Iran in the 1980s and 1990s, met with European lawmakers.
Haddad Adel had been due to speak to the council's parliamentary assembly on Thursday in his capacity as the current head of the Asian Parliaments Assembly (APA).
Talayee Nik said that the speaker had cancelled the trip to France in a bid to safeguard the rights of the victims of the MKO's terrorist attacks and to show practical confrontation with terrorism.
"By scrapping his visit to France and announcing his protest against the invitation to the MKO, Mr. Haddad Adel showed that he is a pioneer in the campaign against terrorism," he added.
"Considering the background and the legal papers and documents pertaining to the legal prosecution of the MKO, the EU and France merely contradicted their claims about campaign against terrorism by inviting them (the MKO leaders)," Talayee Nik reminded.
He further called on the EU to refrain from undermining its political status and dignity through adopting such measures, and said, "West's double standards in treating terrorism brings its allegations about the campaign against terrorism under a question mark."
"The Iranian nation and the world of Islam are monitoring West's double standards in fighting terrorism very precisely and with much sensitivity," the lawmaker added.
Meantime, he pointed out that the invitation to the terrorist group MKO does not represent the will and aspirations of the European nations "because people in Europe distanced themselves away from violence, war and terrorism after they experienced two world wars."
The legislator also warned that Europe is damaging its interests and status in Iran, Muslim world and the Middle-East by restricting its interactions with Iran's popular ruling system, describing the invitation to the MKO as a plot designed by the Zionist lobby to impose indirect restrictions on the Iranian parliament speaker's visit to France.
"By adopting such destructive measures, the Zionist lobby is undermining the interests of the European nations and the status of the European Union (EU) in Iran and the world of Islam," he reiterated.
