Parliament probes 5 MPs over attending Iranian opposition conference

CAIRO – 1 July 2017: The House of Representatives (parliament) referred five parliamentarians for investigation on Saturday regarding their travelling to Paris to attend Iran’s annual opposition conference without notifying the parliament.

The members travelled to Paris despite the parliament’s rejection; the act of travelling without consent is considered a violation against its executive regulations.

In an official statement on Friday, Ahmed Saad El-Din, the Secretary-General of the House of Representatives, declared that the parliament did not approve the members’ attendance at the conference and that their presence does not represent the Egyptian parliament.

Following this declaration, the five parliamentarians who had received official invitations to attend the conference, withdrew from conference and returned back to Egypt.
Parliamentarian Noman Ahmed Fathi el-Badri, who was among the members heading to Iran, told Egypt Today that they [members] did not attend any session of the conference meetings.

El-Badri said these statements while being at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on their way back to Egypt.

The members were scheduled to return on Tuesday, after concluding of the conference.
While six members received official invitation to attend the conference, five travelled without informing the parliament.

In response to the denied permission, El-Badri said, “We apologize for not informing the parliament, we did not mean that, and we know that the situation is dangerous or sensitive.”

The conference, aimed at demanding a change with the current Tehran regime, will include European and Arab participation with strong attendance by Iranian activists.
In July 2016, several parliamentarians along with Deputy of Parliament Salman Wahdan attended the conference, in which Iran condemned their participation considering it as interference of its affairs.

In response to Iran’s stance in 2016 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The participation of Egyptian parliamentarians in such events is not representation for the Egyptian government as the parliament has full independence, as it represents the legislative authority independent from the executive authority”.

Egyptian-Iranian relations have witnessed long-term tensions since the Iranian revolution, improving during the era of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and returning back to tensions following his ouster. These tensions limit the diplomatic representation between the two countries.