Politicians and Iranian refugees have criticised the city of Brussels for inviting Tehran’s hardline mayor to City Hall, just weeks after the EU sanctioned a group he led for human rights abuses.
A senior Belgian politician ignored foreign ministry objections and pushed for Zakani’s inclusion, Brussels Signal can reveal.
The Tehran mayor, Alireza Zakani, attended the Brussels Urban Summit on June 12, where Secretary of State for the Brussels capital region Pascal Smet was also present.
Smet said through a spokesman that Zakani had attended “a very large conference with more than 2,600 participants from 600 cities.”
Tehran was “a member and co-president of the Global Metropolis Network,” and Zakani “was invited in that capacity,” the spokesman said.
However, sources in Belgium’s foreign ministry informed Brussels Signal they had strongly advised against receiving Zakani and his delegation.
Zakani, known as a religious hardliner, was a former leader of the Student Basij Organisation, which the European Council added to its sanctions list on 22 May.
The organisation Zakani previously led represented the regime’s “violent enforcers on university campuses where students staged protests in the autumn of 2022”, the European Council said last month.
The Student Basij Organisation “used live ammunition and opened fire on students” in a 2022 crackdown on protests, and committed acts of “repression and serious human rights violations such as abduction and torture”, said the Council.
Smet went against the advice of Belgium’s foreign ministry and pushed personally over months for Zakani’s invitation.
Smet wrote to the Belgian Embassy’s consular section requesting its “kind assistance”, and asking them “to facilitate” a visa for Zakani.
“Presence does not indicate agreeing with everyone,” Smet’s spokesman told Brussels Signal. “Dialogue is the essence of diplomacy. Brussels is a diplomatic capital,” he added.
But Zakani’s reception at City Hall outraged Darya Safai, who fled the regime in her native Iran as a refugee to Belgium, where in 2019 she was elected to Parliament.
“How is it possible that the boss of such a notorious and sanctioned organisation can just get a visa from Belgium to travel to Brussels?” she asked.
The city had “received a representative of state terrorism”, said Mathias Vanden Borre, a Brussels city councillor and member of parliament who like Safai belongs to the New Flemish Alliance.
Politicians from other parties also criticised Zakani’s reception.
The invitation was “a serious political mistake”, said Sophie Rohonyi, a member of parliament from the Challenge (Défi) party. Zakani was “part of the Iranian regime that bloodily oppresses its people”.
And “rolling out the red carpet for those holding hostages is not acceptable,” said David Leisterh, a Brussels MP and president of the liberal Francophone Reformist Movement.
Inviting Zakani was “shocking and deplorable,” he said, adding “I ask for an explanation”.
Brussels Signal‘s Belgian foreign ministry sources stressed that inviting Zakani had nothing to do with a sensitive and delicate recent prison swap between Belgium and Iran.
Mayors from hundreds of cities around the world gathered in Brussels this week for #BUS2023 !
A very interesting congress with @metropolis_org focusing on sustainable development and social inclusion!@JordiVaquer @ClaudiaLopez @SmetPascal pic.twitter.com/0KpEOyeEar— Philippe Close (@PhilippeClose) June 12, 2023
