EU Parliament cancels visit to Iran

The visit of a 5-member delegation of the European Parliament to Tehran which was to begin today and end on l November 2 has been cancelled. The EP in a statement Saturday said the decision to cancel the trip was taken after Iranian authorities refused to give permission to thevEP delegation to meet with this year's EP human rights award winners who are two Iranian human rights activists Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi. On Friday, the EP unanimously awarded this year's Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought to Sotoudeh and Panahi and decided that the delegation travelling to Tehran should be able to hand-deliver the invitation to collect the prize in December, or cancel the visit. Finnish MEP Tarja Cronberg, who chairs the EP delegation for relations with Iran, todau received a call from the Iranian ambassador to the EU, who said that "at such short notice" it was impossible to guarantee that the MEPs could personally deliver invitation letters to the Sakharov prize laureates. Therefore, Cronberg cancelled the visit of the delegation, which had been seen as an opportunity to reopen a dialogue with the Iranian Majlis and civil society in Iran.