Member States Want EU Embassy in Iran, PN Member Tarja Cronberg Says

EU countries have informally told the European Parliament they want the Union's foreign service to open an embassy in Iran.

Tarja Cronberg, a Finnish Green MEP who chairs the parliament's Iran delegation, said member states' ambassadors in Tehran backed the idea when she met them in the Iranian capital on an official trip earlier this month.

"We held a meeting with all the [EU] ambassadors and they really stressed the importance of more open exchange … They said the best tool for this would be an EU embassy or maybe the creation of an EU special representative [for Iran] as a first step," she told EUobserver.

She noted that: "The Iranians are also open to the idea … We mentioned it to the foreign minister and the Iranian President's chief of staff and they were generally positive."

She added that Iranian officials told her "the EU plays a positive role in the world, but it is not visible enough in the Middle East."

Twenty four EU states have embassies or consulates in the Islamic republic.

The new climate in relations comes after UN Security Council veto powers and Iran agreed an interim deal on its nuclear programme in Geneva in November.

[...] But Iran and the EU remain wary of each other despite the Geneva breakthrough.

Iran has [...] invited Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt to visit. But a Swedish spokesman said on Thursday "there is no decision" if he will go.

Polish and Swedish officials added that there is no formal EU consensus on the embassy idea, no matter what their envoys told Cronberg in Tehran.

The EU foreign service could not be reached for a comment.

[...] Cronberg noted that her contacts in the service are "not very positive" about a new embassy, in part due to the financial cost of opening another mission.

[At the same time] Cronberg noted that Iranian dissidents, such as human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was recently freed from prison, also want more EU-Iran contacts.

"She [Sotoudeh] told me she is very happy that we are here, that she feels energised by our visit … but she urged us to ask tough questions," the MEP told this website.

She added that ordinary Iranian people have "high expectations" that the Geneva process will end their country's isolation.

"People were very happy that our delegation came. They greeted us in the street and welcomed us," she said, recalling her walkabout in Tehran.

To read the full article, please visit EUobserver.com.

Photo by EEAS.

PN Member Tarja Cronberg MEP is currently serving as Chairperson of the Delegation for EU relations with Iran. She is also member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and its Subcommittee on Security and Defence.