Massoud Rajavi Welcomes Decisions by Other Countries to Join EU Declaration, Iran Zamin News Agency, April 30  

Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, welcomed the decisions of the governments of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, to join the declaration yesterday by the European Union against the religious, terrorist dictatorship ruling Iran.

Mr. Rajavi called the measure "a necessary step in confronting the mullahs' unbridled terrorism and the blatant and continued violations of human rights in Iran."

Mr. Rajavi said the EU's emphasis on the clerical regime's "commitments under international agreements, including those concerning the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as those concerning human rights," ought to be reaffirmed by other countries.

 

 

Washington Hails EU Policy on Iran, The Washington Times, May 1 

The United States welcomed the European Union decision not to resume high-level ministerial visits with Iran yesterday and was reluctantly supportive of the decision to send EU diplomats back to Tehran...

"In an ideal, perfect world we would have preferred an agreement on complete isolation of Iran, and that hasn't happened, but the EU ambassadors are going back," he said.

"When they go back, they will go back with a very tough message that is not going to be business as usual any longer between the European Union member states and the government of Iran, so we applaud what has happened today in Luxembourg."

 

Austria 'Would Have Liked More Substance' in EU Decision, Reuter, April 30  

BONN, April 30 (Reuter) - Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel said on Wednesday he was not satisfied with an agreement by European Union states over relations with Iran, saying he would have preferred some kind of economic sanction.

"I would have liked more substance in the decision," Schuessel told Berlin broadcaster Inforadio. "I would have liked us to have been harder in the economic sphere."

German Opposition Slams EU Diplomats' Return to Iran, Reuter, April 30  

BONN - German opposition parties on Wednesday slammed a decision by the European Union to send ambassadors back to Iran just weeks after they were recalled in the wake of a German court ruling.

Leaders of two opposition parties, the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, said the EU's decision on Tuesday sent the wrong signal to Tehran.

… "The years of following a policy of ingratiating themselves with Iran -- something they euphemistically called critical dialogue -- has now come at a heavy price," said Joschka Fischer, leader of the Greens parliamentary group.

"The international image of Germany and the EU has suffered another blow," Fischer said. "After the bloody murder of Iranian opposition leaders in Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, Germany and the EU are opening the way for derision and ridicule with their decision."

… Peter Struck, the SPD parliamentary leader, said the "critical dialogue" that had been pursued so energetically by Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel was "a complete failure."

Struck said Iran's announcement on Wednesday that the German and Danish ambassadors should be kept out of the country for now was "a scandal that more than anything else proves the so-called critical dialogue so often propagated by Herr Kinkel has been a complete failure."

 

Rafsanjani Says European Union 'Surrendered in Disgrace' to Iran, Agence France Presse, April 30

TEHRAN - Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Wednesday that the European Union had "surrendered in disgrace" to his country …

"They created an atmosphere of propaganda and staged a childish game, but at the end they became ashamed and quickly surrendered," Rafsanjani said in a public meeting.

"This shows the true power of Iran," he said, quoted by Iran's official IRNA news agency. "This is a disgrace for those countries which entered this adventure and then admitted there was nothing to it."

… Rafsanjani said his country had already stopped talking to Europe. "This dialogue, the halting of which the EU talks about as an achievement, had long been stopped under Iranian pressure," he said without elaborating.

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