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Lawmaker: Europe Should Take Lesson from Embarrassing Return to Iran

The European countries are seriously in need of Iran and its assistance for solving their problems and that’s why they have returned their ambassadors to Tehran, a senior Iranian legislator said, and cautioned the EU capitals to take a lesson from the embarrassing return of their envoys to Iran.

“The western ambassadors returned to Iran with embarrassment and they should take a lesson for their future,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Fatemeh Alia told FNA on Sunday.

She stressed Iran’s important and influential role on the scene of international relations and in the Middle-East, and said, “They (the European ambassadors) returned to Iran with much shame since they need our country.”

In relevant remarks today, another member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission reiterated that the return of the European ambassadors to Tehran after several months shows Iran’s influential role and power in the world.

“The return of the western envoys to Tehran indicates the clout and influence of the powerful Iran,” Javad Jahangirzadeh told FNA, welcoming the European countries’ decision to resume their relations with Iran at ambassadorial level.

“It seems that we should welcome the return of the western ambassadors to Tehran which was a deserving punch on the jaws of the US and the Zionist regime and we should describe it as a wise move,” he added.

The Western states have recently returned their ambassadors to Tehran after they left the country following a move by thousands of angry university students who raided and occupied the British embassy in Tehran late in November in protest at London’s hostile policies against Iran.

The Iranian students’ move came after the Iranian legislators in an open session of the parliament in November approved the bill of a law on downgrading relations with Britain with 179 yes votes, 4 oppositions and 11 abstentions. The 4 oppositions demanded a full cut of ties with London. After the approval, Iran expelled the British ambassador from Tehran.

The Guardian Council – a powerful vetting body tasked with studying parliament approvals to make sure they are not against Islamic rules and the Constitution – later announced its approval of the parliament ratification.

The parliament approval came a week after the US and Britain targeted Iranian financial sectors with new punitive measures, including sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank and petrochemical industry.

The sanction against CBI and Iran’s petrochemical industry was adopted in a unilateral move by the US, Canada and Britain outside the UN Security Council as other council members, specially Russia and China, had earlier warned against any fresh punitive measure, including sanctions, against Iran.

The British government has also embarked on delisting the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) from its list of terrorist groups.

The Iranian lawmakers initially started drafting a bill to downgrade ties with London after Britain’s direct involvement in stirring post-election unrests in Iran in 2009, but they intensified and accelerated the move after former British Envoy to Tehran Simon Gass criticized the human rights situation in Iran.

“Today, International Human Rights Day is highlighting the cases of those people around the world who stand up for the rights of others – the lawyers, journalists and NGO workers who place themselves at risk to defend their countrymen,” Gass said in a memo published by the British Embassy in Tehran on December 9, 2010.

“Nowhere are they under greater threat than in Iran. Since last year human rights defenders have been harassed and imprisoned,” Gass added.

Following Britain’s support for a group of wild demonstrators who disrespected Islamic sanctities and damaged private and public amenities and properties in Tehran on December 27, 2009, members of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission drafted bill of a law requiring the country’s Foreign Ministry to cut relations with Britain completely.

The British government’s blatant stance and repeated remarks in support of the last year unrests inside Iran and London’s espionage operations and financial and media support for the opposition groups are among the reasons mentioned in the bill for cutting ties with Britain.

Iran has repeatedly accused the West of stoking post-election unrests, singling out Britain and the US for meddling. Tehran expelled two British diplomats and arrested a number of local staffs of the British embassy in Tehran after documents and evidence substantiated London’s interfering role in stirring post-election riots in Iran.

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