Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The Belgian opposition considered that the resignation of Minister Pascal Smit is the only correct option, and the position of Foreign Minister Haji Habib is untenable. Dominique Style, leader of the parliamentary bloc of the opposition Vlaams-Plang Party, said that "inviting the mayor of the Iranian capital, Tehran, was a very grave mistake for Minister Smit." . With this, it gave more legitimacy to the regime of the Iranian Ayatollah and portrayed Brussels as the ideal meeting place for terrorists. According to a statement issued in Brussels, Vlaams Belang believes that Foreign Minister Hajj Lahbib (MR) should also resign because she arranged the visa.
The far-right party's statement, Vlaams Blang, was shocked after Pascal Smit announced his resignation from the post of State Secretary in the Brussels-Capital Government at an unexpected press conference. He had invited Alireza Zakani, the mayor of the Iranian capital, Tehran, to Brussels last week to attend the city's international conference "Brussels Urban Summit 2023". He himself was the former commander of the Basij, a paramilitary unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and in this capacity he was responsible for the bloody repression against Iranian dissidents. This visit was noteworthy because it came so soon after Olivier Vandecastel's release. This Belgian citizen, an employee of a relief organization, was unjustly imprisoned for months in an Iranian prison and was used as a bargaining chip for the release of the terrorist Assadullah Assadi, which the Islamic regime succeeded in doing after months of negotiations. According to what was stated in the statement of the Vlaams Blang Party, of which we received a copy, and it came In it, "In the aftermath of Zakani, Iranian secret agents also traveled to spy on peaceful anti-regime demonstrators in Brussels with the aim of intimidating them and preventing them from publishing criticism of the Iranian regime in Belgium."
"It is best for Habib to follow Smit's lead and leave."
“Inviting the mayor of the Iranian capital, Tehran, was a very big mistake for Smit,” says Lutens Style. In doing so, it gave more legitimacy to the regime of the Iranian ayatollah and portrayed Brussels as the ideal meeting place for terrorists.
However, Vlaams Belang believes that this is not the end of the matter and requests the resignation of Haja Habib from her position as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the federal government. “It was Habib who granted the visa to the representative of the rogue Iranian regime at the simple request of Pascal Smit,” Haseeb Munqal said of parliamentarian Elin Simeen of the Vlaams Belang party. “A minister who only welcomes terrorists is out of place. She better follow suit,” the statement concluded. Follow Smit and leave as well.”