EU parliament to send 2 delegations to Iran

Two delegations from the EU parliament are due to visit Iran late in October, sources said on Monday. "2 EU parliamentary delegations are slated to travel to Tehran in the last days of (the Iranian month of) Mehr (late October)," an informed source told FNA today. "The parliamentary delegations are due to meet with Iranian parliamentary and executive officials during their Tehran visit to discuss the latest political and economic issues," the source added. In October 2012, the EU parliamentarians were also due to visit Iran and they had a hectic agenda, including several meetings with senior Iranian political and parliamentary officials. The visit angered Israel which profoundly worried about the further expansion of ties between Iran and the European countries. Tel Aviv strove hard to discourage the members of the EU parliament from visiting Tehran. The Israeli media said that Israel was working to have the visit canceled. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with European ambassadors to Israel at the time, and praised the latest EU sanctions on Iran while noting that sanctions had not yet prompted Iran to halt its nuclear program. Israel tried unsuccessfully in summer 2012 to discourage nations from participating in a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran, and Netanyahu personally implored UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon not to attend, but was rebuffed.