In the latest development of the Brussels Urban Summit saga, it transpires that Prime Minister Alexander De Croo agreed to the visas granted to Iranian officials attending the event, his cabinet confirmed to Le Soir.
The revelation means that the PM is the third politician to be caught in the ongoing scandal, which led Brussels' Secretary of State Pascal Smet to resign and has seen Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib come under intense scrutiny and pressure to step down.
The controversy started when it emerged that an Iranian and Russian delegation had been invited to attend the Brussels Urban Summit, despite the political tensions that both countries face. While Lahbib claimed to have been put under pressure by Smet, the Brussels Secretary of State alleged that he and the minister had agreed to grant visas to the Iranian representative during a phone call.
Exactly why she accepted Smet's proposal was a mystery until yesterday, when Le Soir revealed that she had sought reassurances from the Prime Minister before granting the visas. De Croo's cabinet confirmed that Lahbib had asked for approval a week before the summit, with the PM agreeing that the Iranian delegation could attend.
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"Belgium had no choice but to issue a visa following an official invitation from the Brussels government to Tehran," a cabinet member told Le Soir.
They explained that since an official invitation had already been sent, "refusing to grant a visa would have been seen as a humiliation" for the Iranian regime.
"Our country did not want to take this risk, for the simple reason that we continue to fight for the rights and release of Europeans unjustly imprisoned in Iran," the PM's office concluded.
Soit la visite des Iraniens "salit Bruxelles" (Mme Lahbib, jeudi), et il fallait refuser les visas. Soit l'octroi des visas se justifiait pour "ne pas humilier l'Iran" (BeGov, hier), et il fallait alors l'assumer sans se défausser sur M. Smet. Incohérence totale. #Irangate
— François De Smet 🇧🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@francoisdesmet) June 21, 2023
Tweet translation: Either the visit by Iranians "dirties Brussels" (Lahbib on Thursday) and the visas should have been refused. Or the visas were justified to avoid humiliating Iran (Belgian Govt. yesterday), in which case there was no need to put the blame on Pascal Smet. Utter incoherence #Irangate
In defending Lahbib on Monday, De Croo failed to mention his role in approving these visas. Instead, he attributed the blame to the Brussels government, arguing that it was they who "decided to invite them (to the summit), and even to pay for their stay."
Lahbib will on Wednesday afternoon face parliamentarians who are expected to cross-examine the intricacies of the affair in a parliamentary committee on Foreign Affairs.
