AJC Welcomes Tough Grilling of Iranian Parliamentarians in European Parliament

Press releases

AJC Welcomes Tough Grilling of Iranian Parliamentarians in European Parliament

Brussels – 23 January 2018 - AJC welcomes the tough grilling a group of Iranian parliamentarians received today in the European Parliament. In an unusual step for such meetings with foreign lawmakers, the Chair of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, David McAllister, opened the session with some harsh criticism for the guests. The German Christian-Democrat specifically challenged Iran’s human rights violations and demanded answers about last week’s police raids in Germany on suspected Iranian agents believed to have targeted Israeli and Jewish sites:

"I'm from Germany,” Mr. McAllister opened his remarks, turning to the Iranian MPs. “The media reported that the suspects are accused of spying on possible Israeli and/or Jewish terror attack targets, including Jewish kindergartens. This would be highly disturbing," he said.

“Mr. McAllister and several of his colleagues who also harshly criticized the regime – in particular on its threats to Israel, support for terrorism, and Holocaust denial – conveyed the crucial message to Tehran that the EU will not tolerate the regime’s nefarious and criminal behavior,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s EU office, the AJC Transatlantic Institute. “All too often, EU leaders fail to do just that – to publicly confront Iran. Predictably, this has only served to embolden Iran’s aggression,” Schwammenthal said.

The Iranian delegation to the European Parliament was led by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the Chairman for the Committee for Foreign Policy and National Security of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran. Boroujerdi repeatedly failed to answer to the alleged Iranian terror plots in Germany and Holocaust denial charges. He did though openly tell the European Parliament – if it needed any reminding – that “we (Iran) do not accept the Zionist regime.”