- A group of European Parliament members
is seeking an indefinite EU travel ban on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
who has called for Israel to be destroyed and questioned the Holocaust.
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- A group of 75 lawmakers from all major
political groups in the EU assembly signed a petition, which was submitted
Thursday to EU president Austria and FIFA, the governing body of world
soccer, asking them to prevent Ahmadinejad from traveling to Germany to
watch his team play in the June 9-July 9 World Cup and banning him from
traveling to any of the other 24 EU member states.
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- "Ahmedinejad's likely visit to
Europe would send a wrong signal to the Europeans and the international
community and in particular to the suppressed people of Iran," the
petition said.
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- The lawmakers say Ahmadinejad must renounce
statements doubting the Holocaust happened and calling for the destruction
of Israel, and insisted Tehran comply with international demands to curb
nuclear activities.
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- "There's nothing to stop the EU
member states, individually or collectively, issuing a declaration that
he will not be granted a visa and will not be able to come to any of the
member states," British Conservative Charles Tannock said.
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- Tannock said the EU had issued visa
bans on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko
to protest against suspected human rights abuses in their countries.
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- "There is precedent for this and
there's no reason why it cannot be extended to President Ahmadinejad,"
he said, urging EU leaders to consider such a step at a summit in mid-June.
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- The Council of EU Ministers declared
a travel ban on Lukashenko and 30 other top Belarusian officials following
the March presidential elections in the ex-Soviet country which the EU
considered rigged.
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- Only EU member states can declare a
travel ban, which is unlikely because world powers, including Britain,
France and Germany, are currently debating how to resolve the Iran nuclear
crisis.
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- "We do not wish the Iranian president
to come to Europe for very clear reasons - his attacks on Israel, his denials
concerning the Holocaust," said Jana Hybaskova, member of the European
People's Party, the biggest group in the European Parliament.
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- "What we want is not a short term
solution, we want the European Council to deal with the issue like it dealt
with Lukashenko."
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- Ahmadinejad has repeatedly questioned
Israel's right to exist, said the country should be wiped off the map and
called the Holocaust a 'myth.'
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- Iran has qualified for the World Cup
in Germany and Ahmadinejad was reportedly considering going to Germany
to cheer on his team, but Hybaskova said the Iranian embassy in Brussels
had informed her he was unlikely to go.
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