By IRNA,
Berlin : A German legislator of the European Parliament called for the return of Iran’s nuclear dossier to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Talking to IRNA in Berlin Friday evening, Tobias Pflueger of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left parliamentary faction said the Venna-based UN atomic watchdog was ‘formally responsible’ for the Iranian nuclear case.
He reaffirmed that the IAEA was the ‘sole institution’ to probe whether western accusations against Iran’s nuclear program proved to be true or not.
Pflueger lashed out at the western sanction policy over Tehran’s nuclear standoff, branding it ‘wrong’.
“Sanctions are part of an escalation policy against Iran and it is my impression that they are completely counter-productive,” the European lawmaker said.
A member of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament, Pflueger criticized the West for pursuing double standards on Iranian nuclear issue.
“The way the West is acting against Iran shows that it is not applying the same criteria for all states,” the MP added, citing Pakistan and Israel as prime examples of this western double moral on nuclear rights.
He warned the West against leveling military threats against Iran, stressing a war over Tehran’s nuclear program would be ‘total lunacy’.
Pflueger lambasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her center-right government for their unhelpful role in settling the Iranian nuclear impasse.
“I am very dissatisfied over the role of the German government,” he emphasized, pointing to Merkel’s strong anti-Iran rhetoric at last year’s high-profile Munich Security Conference.
Pflueger said it was his impression that the Iranian nuclear case was also instrumentalized for the general German elections in late September.
He reiterated the need for ‘an open and direct dialogue’ between Berlin and Tehran.
Pflueger visited Iran recently as part of an 11-member European Union delegation.
The European parliamentary group met with leading Iranian politicians, among them Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and and the Chairman of the Majlis Foreign Policy and National Security Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi.