The controversy over the recent visit to Brussels of the mayor of Tehran, the ultra-conservative Alireza Zakani, for having gone to a congress with local authorities from all over the world does not stop and threatens to upset the fragile balance of forces to the different governments of Belgium.
The image of Zakani being complimented by the Brussels authorities, who paid for his stay and that of his large entourage in a luxury hotel in the capital, revolted Belgian public opinion, which still had the recent image, emaciated, of aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, freed on May 26 after 455 days in captivity thanks to a prisoner exchange in which Belgium handed over Assadollah Assadi, convicted of terrorism.
The outrage grew after images were spread of members of the Persian delegation brazenly filming Belgoiranians who demonstrated against the presence in the country of Zakani, a former presidential candidate and former head of the Bassij organization, a paramilitary body attached to the Revolutionary Guard which was sanctioned last year by the EU for firing on students in the latest revolts. Everything that has been known since about the visit has only aggravated the scandal.
The opposition demanded explanations immediately. The Secretary of State for the Brussels Region, the Flemish Socialist Pascal De Smet, responsible for Foreign Relations, resigned on Saturday, but the storm is not abating. Yesterday, both the Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib, had to give explanations to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federal Parliament. Despite the fact that when the controversy broke out the minister accused De Smet of "tarnishing" the image of the city, it has transpired that after a call, the ministry sent him an e-mail saying that Lahbib would not block the visas Indignant, Deputy Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet, an environmentalist, accused her of "giving away visas as if they were chocolates".
Against the ropes, De Croo spat yesterday with Lahbib and resorted to realpolitik to justify himself. According to the prime minister's account, the Brussels Government informed him at the beginning of April of its intention to invite the mayor of Tehran to the Brussels Urban Summit, a congress with mayors of cities with more than one million of inhabitants The Belgian Executive was in full negotiations to obtain the release of Vandecasteele and other Europeans (three more were returned on June 2) and advised De Smet not to invite them. As mentioned, however, after talking to Lahbib, he decided to invite them and Zakani gladly agreed to attend the meeting.
Faced with the demand to issue visas for the Iranian delegation, De Croo agreed. Denying them permission then, he alleged yesterday, would have been "a humiliation" for Iran at a time when Belgium is keeping communication channels open to try to release more prisoners. “Is a human life worth a visa? Obviously yes", De Croo asked the deputies to justify his decision, admitting for the first time the relationship between the issue of the visit and the negotiations on prisoners.
The explanations have not satisfied Parliament. Although De Croo's involvement in defense is intended to ensure the survival of the Government, the so-called Vivaldi coalition, which brings together seven parties (socialists, liberals and ecologists from Flanders and Wallonia, plus the Flemish Christian Democrats), the resignation demands in the minister became more intense yesterday and not only from the ranks of the opposition.
During a charged debate, Darya Safai, deputy of the N-VA (Flemish conservative nationalists), recalled how she fled Iran 24 years ago after the police went to find her at her parents' house to demonstrate in Tehran. "Now I see the same thing in Brussels and I tell myself that I am not safe anywhere", she said after accusing the Government of allowing Belgium to be a "playground for terrorists".
