Hajj Lahbib’s openness to the East is not well received by the opposition.
Not only did anyone attend the prestigious Brussels Urban Summit urban policy conference in Brussels in mid-June: Belgium promptly invited city leaders from two other sanctioned countries. at the conference Pay his respects Mayor of Kazan in Russia and Tehran, the capital of Iran.
The latter, Ali Reza Zakani, is a militant Iranian Islamist.
The Russian and Iranian delegations were invited by the foreign minister of Brussels (that is, the city, not the country), Pascal Smit, who has since resigned over what happened — but the opposition and some government parties have also targeted Foreign Minister Hajjah Habib, who handled visas for guests from sanctioned countries. . According to two members of the seven-party coalition, the Green Party and the Socialist Party, the foreign minister should resign; The opposition New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) is demanding the resignation of the entire government of Prime Minister Alexander de Croo.
The wolf of the Iranian Algerians
On behalf of the N-VA, the case is being handled by Daria Safaei, an actress of Iranian origin who cut her hair with the foreign minister last October as a sign of solidarity with Iranian women rebels, and now believes that Lahbeeb unfit for office, because he is unable to take responsibility for the fact that only three weeks after the release of a Belgian activist imprisoned in Iran, he has already made a gesture towards Iran. Safai also claimed it
The Iranian delegation filmed him and other dissidents of Iranian origin, so he no longer felt safe in Belgium.
At the same time, Habib’s party, the reformist movement, does not want the foreign minister to resign or apologize too emotionally, because that would cast doubt on the value judgment of the party’s president, Georges Louis Bouchez, who himself appointed the party’s president. Minister of Foreign Affairs, thus risking the dissolution of the seven-party coalition and at the same time another government crisis.
Moreover, this would cause the Belgian domino to fall, because in the first half of 2024, before Hungary, Belgium will assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which in any case will not be helped by the change of ministers in the portfolio that oversees foreign affairs and the affairs of European Union and foreign trade at the same time.
This is not the first flirtation with the Russians
Hajj Lahbib, of Algerian origin, is not the first to be involved in a scandal Opening the East. Even in his previous job, as correspondent for Afghanistan and the Middle East for Belgium’s French-language public television (RTBF), he visited Russia-annexed Crimea, but he refused to reveal how he got there, and was not clear. of the country to which it is recognized as belonging. Peninsula.
When asked by his home business if he came home from Ukraine or Russia, he simply answered yes
A Russian visa is required for landing at Simferopol Airport.
An apology divided on the balance of pharmacy
At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, the foreign minister finally spoke calmly and cautiously I apologize for this matter. I regret that some felt threatened or threatened by the presence of the Iranian delegation. Political decisions must take into account the reality on the ground. I’m sorry if I didn’t take that into consideration enough in my statements.” He said so to Habib, who then passed the blame on to the Foreign Ministry in the city of Brussels “It was a mistake to send out the invitations.”
Editorial photo: MTI/EPA/Olivier Hoslet
