European Parliament refuses Ahmadinejad Diktat

Paulo Casaca, Member of the European Parliament:

Yesterday, in the beginning of the Plenary session, MEP Paulo Casaca objected to the intention of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament to replace the title of the official name of the "Delegation for Relations with Iran" by "Delegation for Relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran", therefore forcing a vote by the Plenary on this question .

This decision, breaking a long established practice of naming partner countries by their standard abbreviated name - that has few and well based exceptions - was done accommodating a demand of the Iranian authorities following the nomination of Mr. Ahmadinejad as President of Iran.

After a declaration of the Friends of a Free Iran and the opposition of the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee to the Political Groups Presidents decision, the Plenary decided by an overwhelming majority to reject the ratification of the decision of the Conference of Presidents.

In the opinion of Paulo Casaca, the co-president of the "Friends of a Free Iran", the "rebellion" of the MEP's to the decision of their political leaders, which is quite unusual, reflects the grass roots feelings of the vast majority of the members of the European Parliament that do not agree with the appeasement policies of the European leaderships to the islamo-fascist dictatorship.