The presence of an ultraconservative Iranian mayor and numerous Russian delegates at a Brussels conference of international urban officials has forced the resignation of a senior Belgian official.
Pascal Smet resigned from his post as the city’s Secretary of State for Urbanism and International Relations Sunday, June 18th, following revelations that his office had invited the mayor of Tehran Alireza Zakani, a noted Islamist hardliner to the summit at public expense.
Zakani was joined by 14 other Iranians and a delegation from the Russian city of Kazan who were attending the Brussels Urban Summit last week.
Smet, a Flemish socialist was publicly questioned by elected officials over emails which showed him insisting on Zakani’s presence at the summit and lobbying officials for a visa. Smet had originally feigned ignorance over the Iranian mayor’s presence saying that a member of his staff had accidentally invited him without approval.
The Summit was billed as a networking event for municipal leaders from around the world hosted at the luxurious five-star Hotel Métropole in Brussels between June 12th to 15th. Both Iran and Russia are under intense sanctions by Belgium as Iran comes under the spotlight for human rights abuses against protestors following the death of the activist Mahsa Amini late last year.
Zakani’s visit prompted espionage concerns, according to security sources, due to fears that undercover Iranian agents, present in the delegation, were tasked with filming anti-government expats.
This fear was vindicated after Iranian-born Belgian MP Darya Safai posted pictures showing what appeared to be Iranian operatives recording anti-government protests by Iranian expats in Brussels.
Zakani himself is an outspoken supporter of the Iranian government and the nominal head of student organisations sanctioned by the EU. Relations between the EU and Iran have deteriorated over the latter’s clampdown on protests as well as support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in reaction to the European Parliament’s sanctions against elements of the Iranian state.
At a press conference announcing his resignation, Smet defended his actions and said that he was being professionally thrown under the bus by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which had issued the Iranians with visas. He added that the matter of resignation should belong to the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs Hadja Lahbib.
This is not the first time it storms around Smet. In February of this year, in response to Eurocrats complaining about the possible relocation of EU institutions to an area of the city where hard drugs are openly bought and sold, Smet accused EU workers of phony outrage, saying many of the institution’s civil servants are themselves drug abusers.
