BRUSSELS — Iran's envoy to Brussels on Thursday accused the European Union of supporting protests in his country and urged the bloc not to interfere in the Islamic republic's internal affairs.
During talks with European parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering, ambassador Ali Asgha Khaji criticised the EU for its "biased and partial attitude" toward the protests in Iran, an embassy statement said.
He called on the EU and its parliament "not to interfere in the internal affairs of Iran and to avoid taking hasty positions and measures which could have inappropriate consequences".
The meeting came a day after Poettering, soon to leave office, said he hoped to lead a delegation of European deputies to Iran to study the June 12 presidential election, which he said appears to be "a massive fraud".
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in Tehran Wednesday that the government would not back down to the opposition protests over the disputed vote.
Iranian authorities say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election but the result has caused a wave of public demonstrations and complaints that the poll was rigged.
In a statement, the European parliament said it had protested to the envoy about the "repression of peaceful demonstrators", and the arrests of activists and media workers.
"We are demanding from the regime in Tehran to stop violence, to allow the demonstrators to demonstrate, to free imprisoned journalists and to allow foreign media to report freely in the country," Poettering said.
He said he had requested to be allowed to travel to Iran at the head of a parliamentary delegation as soon as possible.
