Belgian politician to ST: attempts to destabilize Iran from within, influence EU

Belgian politician Hervé Van Laethem has said that the United States and Israel are trying to destabilize Iran from within after they have realized that it is not possible to overthrow the regime through outside action.

His remark was made during an interview with the Syriatimes e-newspaper over the sanctions reimposed by the U.S. against Iran plus Belgium’s stance towards these sanctions.

“It is certain that these sanctions aim to push Iran to make mistakes that the US will try to exploit later. So, the Iranian leaders must be cautious and think about how to thwart the US plans,” Laethem said, stressing that the U.S. has failed to achieve its goal despite of all measures adopted by it against Iran over the past 40 years. 

The Belgian politician, who chairs the ‘Nation’ Party, made it clear that the neo-conservative camp, which is close to Trump, is launching several initiatives in Europe in order to strengthen Islamophobic and pro-Israeli “populist” parties.

“The goal is to elect a large number of pro-Trump and pro-Israel candidates in the next European elections in the hope of being able to influence European diplomacy, which is considered too conciliatory towards Iran,” he said, indicating that High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mrs. Federica Mogherini, has become the target of neo-conservative camp that it is hoping to replace her after the next European elections.

Laethem underlined that European governments and Mrs. Mogherini want to save the deal with Iran but European companies are afraid of US retaliation.

“Officially, the Belgian government has criticized the US sanctions reimposed on Iran because Belgian companies are probably very interested in doing business with Iran again and Belgian diplomacy, as usual, tries to keep good contacts with everyone,” he said, referring to the fact that Belgian companies that could export to Iran are often also in commercial relationship with US.

U.S. imbalanced policy

The Belgian politician also asserted his country’s adherence to the deals negotiated by European diplomacy, pointing out that Trump is rather unpopular in the Belgian Establishment.

He underscored that US has been always very close to Israel and US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is similar to US recognition of Jerusalem [al-Quds] as the capital of Israel.

“Now, we can honestly say that it is Netanyahu who gives his direct orders to the White House. And this is very worrying because such an imbalance in American politics in Middle East could lead to even more direct confrontations than before,” Laethem concluded.

Interviewed by: Basma Qaddour