The latest appointments in the European Union have put figures on top positions most of whom are pro-Israeli and against Iran.
While Iran’s president-elect Masoud Pezeshkian has sent messages about his readiness to re-engage with the West, the newly elected figures in the European Parliament seem to not be really open to negotiations and collaboration with Iran.
Rather, they have a history of moving in an anti-Iranian direction when in office in the EU bodies, making any engagement with Tehran a difficult task, if not possible at all. This can be especially concluded from the appointment of Hannah Neumann, a legislator of the Green Party of Germany, as the head of the European Parliament delegation on Iran affairs.
Neumann is a member of the German Greens, the same party to which German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock belongs. She has a history of being a harsh critic of the Iranian government. She consistently campaigned for the inclusion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in the EU terrorist list — a step opposed by the EU’s former high representative on foreign policy Josep Borrell when in office.
Whether Neumann accepts the risk and takes an offensive stance against Tehran is still not completely clear, but what is clear as crystal is that if she does so, she should know that blacklisting an official security force of Iran will likely provoke more problems in the EU’s relations with the Islamic Republic.
Hannah Neumann and a long-listed record of controversy!
While Neumann has long rebuked Iran for its lack of democratic representation, her pro-democracy zeal is very well under question when her role as the chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arabian Peninsula (2019-2024) comes in light. In 2021, for example, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses in the United Arab Emirates that included a clause urging the EU to boycott the Expo 2020 in Dubai as a sign of disapproval of Abu Dhabi’s repression. Neumann, however, visited the Expo in clear contravention of the parliament’s position.
Neumann has also praised the UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan for ushering the UAE into “an unprecedented era of growth and modernization,” without any mention to the country’s unpleasant human rights record.
A pro-Israel face in top position of EU’s main legislative body!
According to Israeli media, Roberta Metsola, a member of the European center-right party, was elected for the second time as the head of the European Parliament, which is the main legislative body of the European Union. Metsula is considered as a pro-Israeli politician as she traveled to Israel immediately after the October 7 events to express her “solidarity” with Israel.
About two weeks after the October 7 events, the European Parliament under the presidency of Metsula passed a resolution with a majority of 500 MPs in favor and only 21 against, in which it strongly condemned the “deadly terrorist attack by Hamas” and at the same time declared support for “Israel’s right to defend itself”.
